Black Movie Franchise Stars Who Made Hollywood History

This week, hip-hop mogul 50 Cent will be extending on his decades-spanning takeover of Hollywood by co-starring as one of the action leads in Expendables 4, also being cleverly marketed as Expend4bles.

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Although his acting chops span far and wide, from his well-known television empire as creator of the Power series to a handful of starring film roles in standalone projects, this will mark Mr. Jackson’s first foray into becoming a certified movie franchise star.

Good luck at the box office this weekend, Fif!

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The Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ emcee’s upcoming lead role in Expend4bles shows much potential, and reminds us of the many melanated movie stars who paved the way for Black people to excel in Hollywood. Pioneers like Richard Roundtree and Nichelle Nichols used action, crime-solving and a side of sci-fi to show us what could be possible when our Black star power was finally given a chance to shine in the forefront. In the years that followed, we saw Will Smith getting jiggy with aliens, Laurence Fishburne introducing us to “neo-futurism” and Wesley Snipes having a bloody-good run as a vampire slayer that would give Buffy a run for her money.

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Women, while few and far between, also had their chance to shine as well. Halley Berry gave us a whirlwind of live-action as one of Marvel’s most iconic comic book heroes, while Regina Hall jumpstarted her now-iconic run as an A-list comedic actress with an R-rated spoof of slasher films that became a cult classic in its own right. We look back on these performances and a handful of others with a sense of pride and, hopefully, examples of more to come in the future of Black Hollywood. Fingers crossed!

Take a look at 15 of our favorite Black actors and actresses to become movie franchise stars throughout the history of Hollywood. Let us know if you spot your fave:

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