Put yourself in the shoes of Wesley Snipes, the then-reigning big screen champion, and imagine navigating the choppy waters of Tinseltown in the mid-1990s, when he made the bold decision to set the stage for an iconic Marvel superhero—Black Panther.

The actor, 61, riding high on the crest of monumental box-office successes, was not just any tempting fate; he was a visionary raising his wings and ready to soar into the frontiers of cinema. With a golden touch that turned films like New Jack City and White Men Can’t Jump into cinematic gold, Snipes aspired to simply overwhelm the audience—an ambition far ahead of its time.

Wesley Snipes in Jungle Fever (1991) | Universal Pictures

But when it came to bringing his vision for Black Panther to life, the actor had a daunting task ahead of him. The dream, while imbued with the potential to redefine superhero narratives, suffered...