Black Panthers Martin Freeman Was Once In Talks For A Star Wars Role

Andy Serkis and Martin Freeman are the Tolkien white guys of Marvel’s Black Panther, that much we know, but it turns out they were close to becoming Star Wars cohorts, too.

While promoting his role as Everett Ross in Panther, Freeman sat down with Joe (h/t ComicBook.com) to discuss the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its rich, 10-year legacy.

Having climbed aboard in time for Captain America: Civil War, Martin Freeman’s Marvel career is still in the early stages, though we fully expect his CIA agent to crop up in either Infinity War or Avengers 4 (or both!) when the time comes. It’s a two-part cinematic event the likes of which we’ve never seen, and though he has been kept busy with Sherlock, the British thesp almost added Star Wars to his resume a few years ago.

When asked if he had been approached by Lucasfilm, Freeman replied as so:

No, not directly, no. Indirectly, yeah. I had a chat with the folks a few years ago, but no, it’s been at the right thing. There are other British actors that they preferred to me.

The Star Wars saga has a long and largely successful history of appointing British talent, and that’s something that has continued throughout the new trilogy (see: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Andy Serkis) as well. The fact that Freeman alluded to a meeting that occurred “a few years ago,” leads us to believe that he was potentially in the running for The Force Awakens or Rogue One, only for the role to slip between his fingers.

And for what it’s worth, that last comment was made in jest, as he was interviewed alongside Andy Serkis, whose Supreme Leader Snoke met a grisly fate in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Meanwhile, Black Panther is expected to begin its box office climb later this evening and, frankly, the sky’s the limit.

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