'Black Panther' Star To Speak At Howard University

WASHINGTON, DC -- Talk about a huge get: Chadwick Boseman, the star of the mega-blockbuster "Black Panther," will travel all the way from Wakanda to Washington, D.C. to speak at the commencement ceremony for Howard University next month.

Howard University President Wayne Frederick announced in a statement Wednesday that Boseman, who graduated from Howard in 2000, will return to his alma mater to give the commencement speech for the Class of 2018 on Saturday, May 12. And it is no ordinary event: this will be Howard's 150th commencement ceremony.

“It is an incredible honor and privilege for the Howard University community to welcome back home one of its native sons, Chadwick Boseman, to deliver the 2018 commencement address,” Frederick said in the statement. “He has played some of the most iconic African Americans that have transformed history, including Jackie Robinson, James Brown and Howard’s own Thurgood Marshall. His recent role in the blockbuster film 'Black Panther' reminds us of the excellence found in the African diaspora and how Howard continues to be a gem that produces the next generation of artist-scholars, humanitarians, scientists, engineers and doctors. Mr. Boseman exemplifies the monumental heights and levels Howard graduates can achieve by using the skills and knowledge they acquired at the university.”

Boseman said that he was "excited to return to the Mecca in celebration of the achievements of our illustrious students."

Boseman, who hails from South Carolina, attended the British American Dramatic Academy at Oxford after graduating from Howard. There he began his career as an actor, a path that would eventually lead to his starring role in the smash hit film "Black Panther" as T'Challa (although technically he made his debut as T'Challa in Captain America: Civil War back in 2016). Boseman will return as T'Challa in Marvel's "Avengers: Infinity War" opening later this month.

(Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)