Anthony Mackie Wants to be Panthro…No, Really

There are bound to be a lot of us that can admit that we loved the Thundercats back in the day when the animated series first came out, but it’s been a plan to create a feature-length movie for well over a decade. Sadly, nothing has come of it yet, though the talks of bringing it to life haven’t died down completely. Where it’s at as of now is tough to say, but the hope is that things will begin to pick up eventually if more and more people find a reason to be interested in taking one a role within the movie that might be well suited to them. At this time it would appear that Anthony Mackie is trying to put his stamp on one role, that of Panthro. For those that don’t know much about the Thundercats, Panthro was a Thunderian noble, though he comes off as a warrior and a mechanic, of sorts, in the animated series. He’s easily the strongest in terms of physical strength, but he does have anger issues that he never really resolves. 

Be that as it may, Panthro is still just as dedicated to the survival of the Thundercats as anyone, but he does have an aversion to bats and spiders, which is one of his main character quirks. As part of the team, he’s the elder of the bunch since he starts off the series being the eldest of the survivors, the guy with the experience, and the individual that serves as kind of the grizzled veteran. Quite often in the animated series, he was seen driving the tank-like vehicle and wielding a set of nunchucks that were his primary weapon. Since every one of the Thundercats was fashioned after a wild feline, it’s not hard to figure out what animal Panthro was modeled after. 

While it would be great to see a Thundercats movie finally materialize and be given a release date, it’s fair to state that even by getting the fans interested it will probably be a long time before we ever see anything come to the big screen. There’s no doubt that Anthony Mackie might be a great star to cast in this movie, but it’s not entirely certain that Panthro would be the best character for him to voice since in the original animated series the character’s voice is fairly deep and a bit gravely, indicating his age and the fact that he’s probably been through a few things in life. The others were a bit more youthful and could utilize someone of Mackie’s age since his voice unless he has some hidden talent that no one knows about, isn’t quite as deep as it would need to be. The fact that he’s a fan of the cartoon is great since it does give the impression that he would be able to put his heart and soul into a role. But thinking that he might be right for Panthro is a matter of whether or not he can take his voice down a couple of octaves. Mackie has already made it known that he’s a great actor, and there’s no doubt that he could be a part of this project, but giving him the role he wants would take a bit of work most likely. 

On top of that, it feels easy to state that this should probably be a CG movie since the combination of practical effects and CGI feels as though it might not come together the way that people want to see. There have been a few short attempts at recreating the magic that went into the Thundercats, perhaps to see if people would respond kindly to it, but nothing has stuck thus far, and in all honesty, the original animated series has remained far more popular by comparison. There’s also the matter of the Mutants and Mumm-Ra, the main enemy of the Thundercats since everything from appearances to Mumm-Ra’s transformation would take a lot of work. Looking over the past few years at what’s been taken from the past, it feels as though a reboot of this idea should be a certainty since back in the day this was one of the most popular cartoons around. 

But as always there’s the fact that those making the movies are bound to weigh the benefits and the losses and give serious thought to what might happen if they’re wrong and people don’t want to see this movie come out. There hasn’t been a huge uproar about it yet, but there have been plenty of people wondering if we’ll ever get to see this or if the next few generations will luck out and get a Thundercats movie, even if they don’t know who they are. That would actually be kind of funny, but hopefully, we’ll get to see a Thundercats movie in our lifetime, and hopefully, Anthony Mackie will be a part of it.