Marvel Studios, much like many of the Antagonists between the pages of their comic books, will not be happy until they’ve conquered the world. Or at least Hollywood, which is kind of a separate world unto itself. Vin Diesel has been in talks with the studio to potentially become involved in one of their projects, presumably one of Marvel’s Phase 3 films.
For the uninitiated (where the heck have you been?), Marvel is releasing its movies in waves or Phases. Phase 1 was everything up to The Avengers; Phase 2 began with Iron Man 3 and will run through the next Avengers movie, after which will begin Phase 3 . Since the movies all tie in to each other, it only makes sense, each Phase constituting a sort of chapter in the Marvel Movie Universe.
The contents of Phase 3, still several years away (Avengers 2 doesn’t release until 2015), is still shrouded in mystery and probably not a little indecision as execs weigh which projects to go forward with. Ant-Man is the only confirmed entry so far (with Edgar Wright, acclaimed director of Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, on board as writer and director. There are, however, scripts being developed for potential Doctor Strange and Black Panther movies, and it is to this latter movie that we round back to a certain Mr. Diesel.
Will Vin be donning the mantle of T’Chall, the heroic African chief of the Panther Tribe of the nation of Wakanda (a.k.a. Black Panther)? Or maybe Doctor Strange’s cape? I’ts hard to imagine Marvel would invite the public backlash of whiting out one of their few black characters, and he doesn’t exactly fit the image of the prototypical Strange, so perhaps it’s someone else within the vast Marvel lexicon for Diesel. Last year it was speculated that he might be cast as Vision, the energy projecting Android who becomes a member of the Avengers. Diesel himself is playing it coy. “Marvel has requested a meeting… no idea what for… you probably know better than me…” At any rate, Diesel would likely make a great addition to the ever growing Marvel fraternity.