Oscar-Winning Writer Says He’d Be Honored To Script An MCU Movie

To most casual audiences, John Ridley is best known as the Academy Award winning writer of 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen’s incendiary and unflinching historical drama that found itself showered in awards season glory.

However, the scribe’s vast back catalogue of credits also includes David O. Russell’s Three Kings, the recent Ben-Hur remake and episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the animated Justice League series, American Crime and more. On top of that, he’s also an established comic book writer that’s worked with both Marvel and DC.

In a new interview with ScreenRant to promote his latest screenplay Needle in a Timestack, Ridley admitted that he’d be honored were he to receive the opportunity to tackle an installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“I would be beyond honored to be able to work in the Marvel Universe on film and television. But at the same time, I don’t approach Black Panther on the page as though, ‘Hey, think of me for a film’. My responsibility is to do the best Black Panther as a comic book, for those who are going to read it as a comic book.”

Ridley is set to write a new run of Black Panther for Marvel Comics, and he was attached to oversee a TV show for the company before its television division was folded into Marvel Studios. An Oscar statue and some experience in the field of superheroes doesn’t guarantee you an MCU gig, but it makes for a solid resume nonetheless.

With upwards of 30 film and television projects in development, there’s going to be plenty of openings coming up, so Ridley may well get his wish one day in the not too distant future.