Y'know, I've been quietly hoping that the already-amazing cast of Marvel's Black Panther would find a way to include Angela Bassett, and they've gone ahead and done it. I knew they were reading my mind. Deadline reports the veteran actress, who played Amanda Waller in Green Lantern a few years ago, has joined Black Panther as T'Challa's mother, Ramonda.
Bassett joins Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Forest Whitaker, Winston Duke, Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya, and Florence Kasumba in the film directed by Creed's Ryan Coogler. It's unclear how big of a role she'll have given the size of the ensemble, but even a small role by Bassett has the potential to have a lot of impact. In the comics, Ramonda was T'Challa's stepmother, having stepped in to take care of him when his birth mother died in childbirth. She was rarely around during his childhood, though, having been kidnapped and held captive for years while T'Challa thought she had run away.
Bassett was just seen reprising her role in the sixth season of American Horror Story, and came back for London Has Fallen earlier this year. Black Panther opens February 16th 2018.
