New Orleans native actor Anthony Mackie sat down for an interview with Inverse to talk about one of his dream roles that he never got. In the June 28 exclusive, Mackie revealed that he first requested to play the role of T’Challa in a Marvel Black Panther film. 

The Captain America: The Winter Soldier star told Inverse that before the late Chadwick Boseman played the character, Mackie wanted to get the chance to play the hero. He relayed his desire to Marvel on, reportedly, multiple occasions.

“I had been contacting Marvel a lot about Black Panther. I had written them letters. I was trying to find a way to make them make Black Panther. And I wanted to be Black Panther because growing up, I f****** loved Black Panther,” Mackie said. 

He admitted his surprise when directors Joe and Anthony Russo contacted him to offer him a role in an upcoming project. Mackie recalled thinking that it would be for T’Challa. The

8 Mile actor told the outlet, “I’ll never forget, Joe Russo said, ‘Listen, so we’re doing this movie. We want you to be in it. We can’t say what character you’re playing or who else is going to be in it. Would you do it?’ He added, “And that was it. I was like, ‘You know what, I like y’all dudes. I’ll do it. I’ll go on this ride with you.’”

He continued to explain that a few weeks later, the Russo’s told him that he wouldn’t be playing T’Challa; in fact, he wouldn’t even be starring in an upcoming Black Panther film. Mackie was shocked because, at the time, he didn’t know that there were any significant roles for a Black actor in a Marvel movie; he then learned that he would be playing Captain America’s sidekick, Sam Wilson. 

“What other major comic book figure has enough of a presence to have his own movie? So when they hit me up, and they were like, ‘Yo, so it’s Sam Wilson,’ I’m like, ‘Really?’”

It’s nearly been four years since Mackie stepped into the role of Falcon in the Marvel universe.