Black Panther star Michael B. Jordan adapting epic African fantasy novel for the big screen

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 05: Michael B. Jordan speaks onstage during Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations at PlayStation Theater on February 05, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for THR)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 05: Michael B. Jordan speaks onstage during Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations at PlayStation Theater on February 05, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for THR) /
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Between Game of Thrones on HBO and The Mandalorian on Disney+ and The Wheel of Time and The Chronicles of Narnia on Netflix and The Kingkiller Chronicle on Showtime and a bunch of others I’m probably forgetting, fantasy stories are very much in right now. But why should television have all the fun? The Hollywood Reporter…uh, reports that Michael B. Jordan, Killmonger in Black Panther and Creed in Creed, has teamed up with Warner Bros. and optioned the rights to Black Leopard, Red Wolf, a new fantasy novel from Jamaican author Marlon James.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf is set in a fantastical version of Africa, built on centuries of African mythology and bolstered by Marlon’s imagination. It follows Tracker, an expert hunter hired to find a boy who went missing three years earlier. He’s joined on his search by a hodgepodge of curious character, all of whom have their secrets and one of whom is a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard. Together, they visit ancient cities and deep jungles and mighty rivers, all the while beset by fearsome beasts intent on destroying them. Who exactly is this missing boy, why to so many people want to stop Tracker from finding him, and who in his group can he trust?

To find the answers to those questions, you’ll have to watch the movie…or read the book, which is the first in Marlon’s planned Dark Star trilogy. Jordan will produce through his Outlier Society. Maybe he’ll star, too?

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Penguin Random House calls Marlon’s work “an African Game of Thrones.” We’ll see if that’s borne out, but it certainly sounds interesting.

There are lots of African-inspired fantasy stories out there, but the subgenre has been getting more attention in recent years, helped along in no small part by the huge success of Black Panther. For example, HBO is currently adapting Who Fears Death,  Nnedi Okorafor’s science fiction book about a post-apocalyptic Sudan, for TV, with A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin on board as an executive producer. Both of those projects are things to watch.

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