Denzel Washington Teases Retirement, Potential ‘Black Panther 3’

The Oscar and Golden Globe-winning entertainer, now 69, made the stunning reveal with Australia’s Today while on the press junket for Gladiator II, now in theaters.

While Washington’s confirmation of his final bow is surprising on its own, it is also the first the public has heard about a third entry in the Black Panther franchise.

Washington laid out his final batch of projects for Today, including Black Panther 3, two versions of Shakespeare’s Othello – one for the Broadway stage and another for the big screen – and an as-of-yet untitled project by Steve McQueen.

“I played Othello at 22. I am about to play Othello [again] at 70,” Washington said, as reported by Variety. “After that, I am playing Hannibal. After that, I’ve been talking to Steve McQueen about a film. After that, Ryan Coogler is writing a part for me in the next Black Panther. After that, I’m going to do the film Othello, After that, I’m going to do King Lear. After that, I’m going to retire.”

The “Hannibal” in question is not the one made famous by Sir Anthony Hopkins, but the real-life Carthaginian military leader of the same name.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, who first worked with Washington on 2001’s Training Day, the upcoming Netflix project has already garnered controversy, as additionally reported by Variety, due to Tunisian officials taking issue with the African-American Washington portraying Hannibal, who was of West Asian Semitic origin.

Washington’s divulging of Black Panther 3 is the first we’ve heard of a possible third film in the beloved Disney action-adventure franchise. The first increment, released in 2018, centered on King T’challa of Wakanda taking over his father’s role as protector of his people and was played to great effect by Chadwick Boseman. Sadly, Boseman succumbed to colon cancer in 2020, prior to the filming of the 2022 sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

While honoring Washington with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019, Boseman, who previously revealed Washington financially covered an acting summer school course for him, praised Denzel for his storied career and said that he wouldn’t be the actor he was had it not been for Washington forging a path to greatness.

“[The] whole [Black Panther] cast stands on your shoulders,” Boseman said. “The daily battles won, the thousand territories gained, the many sacrifices you made for the culture on film sets through your career, the things you refused to compromise along the way lay the blueprints for us to follow.”

With an acting career that spans nearly five decades, there isn’t much that Washington hasn’t done. Speaking to Today, he explains that his final lap as an actor is about working with the best filmmakers currently active.

“For me, it’s about the filmmakers – especially at this point in my career,” Denzel explained. “I am only interested in working with the best. I don’t know how many more films I’m going to make. It’s probably not that many. I want to do things I haven’t done.”

Incidentally, Washington’s upcoming turns in both the Othello stage show and the big screen production are nods to his start in acting. After first attending Texas Tech University and Fordham University in the 70s for their sports programs, he pivoted to Drama and Journalism, earning a BA in the latter course in 1977.

Following a period of indecision, a performance in a staff talent show at a Connecticut YMCA gave him the boost he needed to give acting a serious try. That fall, he returned to Fordham University and enrolled at Lincoln Center to study the craft. Soon after, he was cast in the title role of Othello.

Back in August during another promotional interview for Gladiator II, Washington first brought up his decision to retire at some point in the near future. Speaking to Empire in August, he expressed that his interest in acting was waning and he only wanted to be attached to projects that inspired him.

“There are very few films left for me to make that I’m interested in,” he said, adding, “and I have to be inspired by the filmmaker.”