With Black Panther on the verge of shattering records at the box office, it seems all too obvious that we’ll join T’Challa back in Wakanda one day for a sequel. Marvel already knows that it owes much of this success to director Ryan Coogler, who’s every bit the hero of Black Panther as T’Challa.
In an interview published by Variety Wednesday, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige spoke about the importance not only of casting Chadwick Boseman as the titular Black Panther, but also having director Ryan Coogler on the film. “I’m very glad this movie wasn’t made in 1992 because Ryan Coogler might not have been born,” Feige said.
When Variety asked Feige outright if Marvel Studios wanted Coogler back for a sequel, all he said was: “Absolutely.”
Black Panther has already broken records for pre-order ticket sales and has an impressive showing already on the international market. If all this projected success is any indication, then nobody could’ve done a better job than Coogler.
Ryan Coogler speaking at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con International.
Commercial success, however, doesn’t always warrant a sequel — even if it is a convenient way for Marvel Studios to know which heroes it can bet on to make them more money. (For what it’s worth, nobody wanted another Thor movie after the fairly abysmal The Dark World, but director Taika Waititi made Thor: Ragnarok a runaway hit, proving just how much value Marvel gets out of putting a good director on a project.)
Marvel Studios has no specific plans for a Black Panther sequel just yet, with Feige saying, “We always say we work on one movie at a time.”
Currently in the pipeline, there’s Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Captain Marvel. Beyond that, there’s Avengers 4 and the untitled Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel. There’s several films on the calendar for 2020, any of which could eventually be Coogler’s Black Panther sequel.
Feige did admit they have plenty of comics material to draw from for any potential sequels: “Panther has been around for more than half a century in the comic books and there are many, many stories to tell.”
Maybe we’ll get even more than one sequel to Black Panther, giving even more meaning to the phrase “Long live the king.”
Black Panther will be released in theaters February 16, 2018.
Brush up on your Black Panther history with a video from Marvel about T’Challa’s family tree in the comics:
