The Blackening Star Jay Pharoah is ready for his change to play a superhero. Promoting the new film, from Fantastic Four director Tim Story, Pharoah told ComicBook.com that he’s confident it will happen eventually, The new movie, a horror send-up that plays with the trope that Black characters are always the first to die in slasher movies, centers on a group of Black friends who find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a killer. Pharoah told us that his character is a bit superhero-like in this movie — he’s got plenty of action and has to save his girlfriend — but that’s not quite what he’s aiming for.
Joking that he doesn’t understand why he hasn’t had one yet, an energetic Pharoah doubles down on his commitment to the premise. It seems like he’s sure that someday he’ll end up in a Marvel or DC movie.
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“Why has not there been a superhero role?” Pharoah asked ComicBook.com’s Chris Killian. “Even Shawn in this movie, he was trying to save his girl, but he wasn’t quite a superhero. It’s got to happen, man!”
No word on who, exactly, he would want to play, or which superhero universe he would want to hail from. Obviously, Marvel is the current gold standard, but with James Gunn taking over DC and shows like The Boys and Invincible out there, there are plenty of opportunities to star in superhero content that could excite almost any actor. For the last few years, a consistent go-to for high-profile Black actors is to suggest they want to play Green Lantern John Stewart, who is well-known to casual viewrs since he was the Green Lantern of Justice League Unlimited.
The Blackening centers around a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain’t no motherf****** game. Directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Think Like A Man, Barbershop) and screenplay and screen story by Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, Harlem) & Dewayne Perkins (The Amber Ruffin Show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), The Blackening skewers genre tropes and poses the sardonic question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?
The Blackening stars Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Dewayne Perkins, Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, Jay Pharoah, and Yvonne Orji.
The film opens in theaters on June 14.
