American actress, Angela Bassett has joined the cast of Marvel Studios‘ upcoming American superhero film, Black Panther.
Angela Bassett will play Ramonda, mother of T’Challa / Black Panther.
She is best known for her biographical film roles, Tina Turner in the biopic, What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993), Betty Shabazz in both Malcolm X (1992) and Panther (1995), Katherine Jackson in The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992), Rosa Parks in The Rosa Parks Story (2002), Voletta Wallace in Notorious (2009) and Coretta Scott King in Betty and Coretta (2013).
Bassett earned nominations for her roles in films such as The Score (2001), Akeelah and the Bee (2006), Meet the Browns (2008) and Jumping the Broom (2011) and won awards for her performances in How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) and Music of the Heart (1999) among others.
In 2013, she also had a recurring role on the FX horror series, American Horror Story: Coven, which earned her second Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her performance as Voodoo queen Marie Laveau.
She returned for Freak Show, the anthology series’ fourth season, portraying a three-breasted woman named Desiree Dupree for which she received another nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.
In 2015, Bassett returned for the fifth season American Horror Story: Hotel portraying Ramona Royale, a famous movie star and In 2016, she returned to the series’s sixth cycle, American Horror Story: Roanoke, portraying an alcoholic actress named Monet Tumusiime.
Angela Bassett joins the all-star lineup that includes Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, ruler of Wakanda, Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Danai Gurira as Okoye., Forest Whitaker as Zuri, Daniel Kaluuya, Winston Duke, and Florence Kasumba.
Ryan Coogler is both writing and directing the film, which will continue the story of Boseman’s T’Challa following his debut in Captain America: Civil War.
Joe Robert Cole will serve as co-screenwriter.
Production handled by Kevin Feige.
Black Panther will start shooting in January 2017 in Atlanta for February 16, 2018 release.