Damian Priest says Wakanda Forever role taken from him, ‘but not from Marvel’

Damian Priest says he was cast in Marvel’s 2022 blockbuster film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but had the opportunity taken from him.

While Priest didn’t explicitly state that WWE prevented him from appearing in the movie, he made it clear that Marvel wasn’t responsible for taking the role away.

He addressed what happened during a recent interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet.

“It’s a long story but basically it got taken away from me, but not from Marvel,” Priest said after confirming he had been offered a role in the film.

“I think we can read between the lines here that the (WWE) regime was a little bit different at that time,” Van Vliet added.

“Exactly,” Priest responded.

However, Priest continued to say that he’s fine with how everything worked out.

“Look, come what may, I’m good with it,” Priest continued. “Maybe I’d do something like that, I go a different route, and I’m not sitting here with you being a world champion, like I won a world championship at WrestleMania, I don’t know if that happens.”

“It didn’t work out, not the end of the world. The movie was great though,” he added.

Filming of the movie began in June 2021 and wrapped in March 2022. Parts of the movie were filmed in Puerto Rico.

Later in the interview, Priest commented on the night he won the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 40.

“If I’m being honest, it was emotional. I partied with my friends and family afterwards. We had a celebration, it was a great time. But then when I got back to my room, it was kind of one of those things where I was like, What is this? How is this happening? And yet, just holding the title in my hand, looking at it, and just it was like one of those things, like, my entire life flashed, everything I had to go through to get to that point. It was one of those realizations of I thought I had regrets. I thought I wished I could do things differently, and then it was one of those things where it was like no, this is exactly where I’m supposed to be, and this is the only way it would have happened.”

The full interview is available below: