Winston Duke On What It Was Like To Join Black Panther

Before being cast in 2018’s biggest blockbuster (so far) Winston Duke was probably not a name you knew, unless you were a big Person of Interest fan. But after Black Panther was released in theaters this week all that changed for many of us.

Duke played the enormous role of M’Baku. By enormous I not only mean his physical size but the importance of the role in the film (to say much more enters the land of spoilers). Getting cast in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film is a career changer for any actor but as a self described nerd this was huge for Winston Duke.

In an interview with People Magazine for their “Ones to Watch” issue of up and coming stars to follow, Duke describes what the process of getting cast in his role was like. Duke told People, “my agents love pranking me” so when he got the call for the part – he didn’t believe them at first. They told him to sit down for some bad news, but then turned it on him yelling “You got it! You got it!”

Winston Duke and his character M’Baku will return in Avengers: Infinity War.

Black Panther is directed by Ryan Coogler, and starring Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger and Danai Gurira as Okoye.

T’Challa, after the death of his father, the King of Wakanda, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation to succeed to the throne and take his rightful place as king.

Black Panther is now in theaters, next up in the MCU is the culmination of 10 years super hero films, Avengers: Infinity Wars which will be released in May. After that look for Ant-Man and The Wasp in theaters July of 2018 and Captain Marvel in March of 2019.