Kevin Feige Says Black Panther 2 Will Happen Whenever Ryan Coogler’s Ready

One of the great public services Avengers: Infinity War is about to do is bringing back some of our favorite characters from Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), Shuri (Letitia Wright), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and more have big parts to play in the Russo Brothers epic. Who on planet Earth doesn’t want to see Shuri own Bruce Banner? No one. What few people could have predicted was the fact that it would be the super-sized Infinity War that would be following a historic Marvel film. Black Panther is Marvel’s highest-grossing domestic release and one of the most successful films of all time. Such was the colossal impact, both commercially and critically, of Coogler’s film. So it makes sense in every conceivable way that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has gone on record saying that Black Panther 2 will happen whenever Coogler’s ready for it.

Speaking to Collider‘s Steve Weintraub at the press day for Infinity War, Feige was asked if Coogler was a lock to return for the sequel. Here’s what he had to say:

“We definitely want Ryan to come back and that’s actively being worked out right now. When will it be? A lot of it will be when Ryan wants to and not rushing anything, but I think we have an idea of when it will be. But, again, [we’re] not going to announce any post-Avengers 4 movies until hopefully after Avengers 4, which is another reason we’re not going to Comic-Con.”

While it’s a no-brainer that Marvel would want Coogler back for Black Panther 2, waiting for a director’s schedule to clear up before slotting a new film into the MCU schedule is actually novel for the studio. This is how much of an impact Coogler made with Black Panther: the most successful studio of the last ten years will wait until he’s ready, instead of putting a film on the schedule regardless of a director’s commitment.

Black Panther was integral for the MCU. Feige explained that Coogler (and his incredible cast and crew) not only delivered a historic film in its own right, but one that had major implications for all the films to follow it, starting with Infinity War.

“The success of Panther is so amazing and makes us happy for so many reasons, and it certainly exceeded our lofty expectations. But our expectations were always lofty, so we had built a plan, not the least of which was centering so much of Infinity War in those locations and with some of those characters, that [its success] just says, ‘Let’s stick to this plan.’ It would have bee much more disruptive if it had not worked. Then we would have had to change a lot of what we were thinking about, but it really just solidifies and excites us to continue to move forward in the directions we’re heading in.”

While everyone wants Black Panther 2 to happen as quickly as possible, we imagine very few people, if anyone, isn’t willing to wait a while longer until Coogler’s ready to direct it. Luckily, this includes the person’s whose opinion matters most, Kevin Feige.

Featured image: L to R: Danai Gurira (Okoye) on set with Director Ryan Coogler..Ph: Matt Kennedy..©Marvel Studios 2018