Chadwick Boseman Tapped to Play History's First Black Samurai According to Deadline, Boseman will br star as Yasuke, the first African br samurai in Japanese history. Chadwick Boseman, via Deadline According to 'Huffington Post,' Mike De Luca br and Stephen L'Heureux said they were br co-producing Yasuke's story back in 2017. Deadline reports that br Doug Miro, co-creator br of 'Narcos,' will write the script. According to the biography, br 'African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, br a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan,' Yasuke came to Japan in 1579, serving as an br indentured bodyguard and servant to Portuguese br Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano. Valignano then gave Yasuke to br the warlord Oda Nobunaga as a gift. Nobunaga then presented Yasuke the swords of a samurai.