Marvel's Black Panther villain Man-Ape will return in Avengers: Infinity War

Actor Winston Duke is set to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as M’Baku AKA Man-Ape in ‘Black Panther’ – and this won’t be the last we see of him.

IMDb’s Twitter feed just announced that Duke will reprise his role in the eagerly-anticipated ‘Avengers: Infinity War,’ the all-encompassing epic that the entire MCU has been building toward.

This news comes on top of recent reports that another ‘Black Panther’ actor, Letitia Wright, will appear alongside Boseman in ‘Avengers: Infinity War.’ All of this goes some way to support rumours that the events of ‘Black Panther’ will play a big part in setting the scene for ‘Infinity War.’

This will mark only the second big screen credit for Duke, who appeared in TV’s ‘Person of Interest,’ ‘The Messengers’ and ‘Modern Family’ prior to his casting in ‘Black Panther.’ Chadwick Boseman debuted the role in 2016’s ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ and will take the lead in the 2018 movie from ‘Creed’ director Ryan Coogler.

In the ‘Black Panther’ comics, M’Baku is the brother of Boseman’s T’Challa, who adopts the mantle of Man-Ape and leads the savage White Gorilla Cult in a bid to take the throne of Wakanda for his own. It’s not hard to detect a bit of a Loki vibe at play – but where Hiddleston’s brother of Thor is all sly wit, Man-Ape is sheer brute strength.

Boseman, Duke and Wright join an already sizeable ensemble boasting just about every major Marvel character, including the combined casts of the ‘Avengers’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movies, plus Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. It is also anticipated that the film may see Brie Larson make her debut as Captain Marvel.

‘Black Panther’ opens in UK cinemas on 16 February 2018, with Avengers: Infinity War’ arriving shortly thereafter on 27 April.

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