Esteemed actor Laurence Fishburne sure does love himself a good comic book movie. In just the past few years, Fishburne had appeared as Perry White in DC Entertainment's MAN OF STEEL, and then reprised the role again for BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. In addition to his time spent in the DCEU, Fishburne will also contribute his keen acting skills to Marvel Studio's upcoming sequel ANT-MAN AND THE WASP.
With that said, the red-or-blue-pill actor had recently sat down for an interview with Collider's own Steve Weintraub, and revealed that he's working on a top secret project that he hopes "will change the world."
During his time with Weintraub, Fishburne spoke of his history with the legendary comic book label, and how his love for Marvel dates all the way back to his early childhood:
“I have figured out how to get myself into the Marvel Universe… I can only tell you that I, as a comic reader from childhood, I was a Marvel guy primarily because I grew up in New York City in the 60s and 70s when Marvel was really touching on everything that was happening in my world. It was reflected in the books and in the stories they were telling.”
Oh man, now I'm positively racking my brain as to what characters Fishburne has been drawn to, over the years, and in what way he can make himself a bigger part of the MCU.
In continuing his talk with Weintraub, Fishburne confessed that while he was unable to participate in the making of JUSTICE LEAGUE due to scheduling conflicts, he used the opportunity to meet with Marvel and pitch them his idea for becoming a larger part of their over-arching universe. The meeting eventually led to the actor securing a role for the forthcoming ANT-MAN AND THE WASP:
“I got the offer to do Perry White in Man of Steel, I said yes to that. Obviously Batman v Superman I said yes to that. I was unable to be involved in the Justice League movie, scheduling-wise it just wasn’t going to work out, but I had wanted very much to be part of the Marvel universe at the same time. So I went to them and pitched them a couple of ideas and basically said, ‘Look, if there’s anything I can do that makes sense for me to do in the Marvel universe, I would love to be involved. So they came to me with an offer to be Bill Foster in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
All I can tell you is I’m playing Bill Foster, who was Hank Pym’s assistant. That’s how I enter into the world and I’m very excited. Peyton Reed is directing it, who directed the first one. It’s gonna be as fun and cool and smart as the first one.”
Not content to let his last two days of shooting on the Peyton Reed-directed sequel to be his last, Fishburne revealed to Collider's Weintraub that he's in the throes of working on a top secret project with the titanic comics-to-film studio:
“I’ve got black-ish going on, I’m developing something else for Marvel that I can’t talk about. It’s gonna be really cool. It’s gonna change the world, we hope (laughs). I went to Marvel and pitched them something that really couldn’t work out—there was a lot of legal red tape that just [was] something they couldn’t work out. But then they came back with the offer for Ant-Man and the Wasp and then they said, ‘Hey, what do you think of this?’ and I went ‘Oh yeah that, yes!’ so…”
Oh, Fishburne, you tease! What could he possibly be talking about? Will the project be another marquee Marvel film, a television series, a Netflix exclusive? Much like the world of comic books, the possibilities for this shadowy project are simply endless!
Let us know what you think Laurence Fishburne is up to, and be sure to check out ANT-MAN AND THE WASP when it buzzes into theaters on July 6, 2018.