Filming for Black Panther begins next year, and producers released a casting call seeking paid extras.
The open call posted on Tammy Smith Casting seeks hopeful actors to attend auditions in Norcross, Georgia. They will be held Nov. 5 and 6 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. Anyone trying out should expect to stay for an hour for a brief information presentation and have their photo taken.
Filmmakers – including director Ryan Coogler – are specifically looking for “African men and women ages 18 to 90.”
Also, they encourage younger attendees to “bring your elders,” but children are not allowed. Instead, a separate casting call will be held for youth at another date. Should potential extras make it through auditions, they can expect to film from January to May 2017. Pay rates begin at $100 per day.
For clothing options, casting agents said extras can wear African-inspired clothing, Afropunk outfits or simply a tank top and fitted pants. Piercings, tattoos and shaved heads for men and women are welcome.
Additionally, producers want athletic individuals with a specific set of skills. They include mixed martial arts, knife fighting, wrestling and African drumming.
All extras will help fill out the fictional African nation of Wakanda, the home of T’Challa – also known as Black Panther. The film is based on the Marvel comic about a royal African descendant who is forced to protect his country from invasion.
Lead roles for the Black superhero film have filled out over the last several months. Chadwick Bozeman stars as the lead character after he made his debut in Captain America: Civil War. Atlanta Black Star reported Lupita Nyong’o and Michael B. Jordan will star in Black Panther, too. And earlier this month, Marvel.com revealed Forest Whitaker will appear in the film.
As for his vision for the movie, director Ryan Coogler revealed how he plans to make the film his own.
“It’s going to be my most personal movie to date,” he told Fast Company. “Which is crazy to say, but it’s completely the case. I’m obsessed with this character and this story right now, and I think it’s going to be very unique and still fit into the overall narrative that they’re establishing.”
Black Panther opens in theaters Feb. 18, 2018.