Cass Bird/Vanity Fair
It's no coincidence that Michael B. Jordan stars in two of the buzziest films of the year.
First came Black Panther, the $1.3 billion blockbuster from Marvel Studios that re-teamed Jordan with his Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler. Next comes Creed II (in theaters Nov. 21), the eighth installment in the Rocky franchise and Jordan's second time taking the lead role.
Now, the 31-year-old actor is gracing the cover of Vanity Fair for the second time in 2018, after having joined Harrison Ford, Gal Gadot, Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey and other power players in February for the cover of the magazine's annual Hollywood Issue. But this time, the actor appears solo, a sure sign that he's "made it." Ask Jordan, though, and he'll be the first to say he has a long way to go. Citing Will Smith and Denzel Washington, he says, "They broke down those barriers for us. Now it's time for us to take what they did and take it to the next level."
And Jordan is doing just that. Two years ago, he inked a deal with Skydance Media to form his own production shingle, Outlier Productions. Now, he's using his star power to give other artists—especially black artists—a chance to tell their stories. "I'm first and foremost a black man, for sure, but what I'm trying to do, and what I'm trying to represent and build, is universal. We live in the times where everything is based around race. And for me, it's like, I get it. I understand. It just makes everything so loaded," he says. "When the way to do it is to Trojan-horse it, so then people look up, and say, 'Oh wow, what happened? I didn't even realize that.'"
Jordan earned a reported $2 million for his role as Erik Killmonger in Black Panther, and he also receives residuals on the back end. Admittedly, the actor was a "rookie" when he signed up for that movie—but "moving forward, it's a totally different story. This is the defining moment in a lot of different areas for me that's gonna set up my next five to ten. That's why I'm so locked in right now, because if it was ever a time to get distracted or, like, drop the ball, this is not it."
In addition to regularly discussing tricks of the trade with Jay-Z, Jordan says he tried to model his business after LeBron James' media company. "Whenever I see him, it's love, always trying to represent our generation, represent our culture, like, 'Why not us?' Things don't have to be the way they've always been done," the actor explains. "I just happen to do more than just act."
Much of Jordan's success is attributed to Phillip Sun, his 36-year-old agent from WME. "You need your franchise, because in order for him to achieve all the things that he had the ambition to do, we had to make him a star, a bond-fide star," Sun says of his client, now an award season contender for his role in Black Panther. As Jordan's profile continues to rise, "Our next step will be an umbrella company to finance all of the things we want to do, and then ultimately the long-term plan is for that umbrella company to own whatever content that he creates," Sun reveals. "That is a step for Michael and the team to becoming the mogul status he wants to be."
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