D23 has revealed quite a lot of new stuff for the MCU as we’ve got our very first look at how the Eternals are gonna look. Then, the lucky people attending the Disney event also got to see an exclusive footage from Black Widow. But before all this, Disney called Black Panther director Ryan Coogler upon stage and confirmed that Black Panther 2 is coming at us. And the Black Panther 2 release date has actually surprised us. Take a look:
Just announced at #D23Expo, Ryan Coogler returns to direct Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER 2, in theaters May 6, 2022. pic.twitter.com/9zfcFzOi6z
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) August 24, 2019
The first Black Panther movie came out in February and shattered all the records for an MCU solo film. It still is the highest rated Superhero movie according to the critics and it’s also the highest-grossing solo superhero film worldwide. It made $700 Million at the domestic Box Office and a total of $1.3 Billion worldwide. So, everything was set for Black Panther 2 to have a February 2022 release as well. But Marvel has pushed it to May 2022.
Marvel confirmed that Captain Marvel 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are also in development, so the February release may actually belong to Captain Marvel 2. Although, Marvel may actually give Blade a film in February, who knows. But all we know is that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will definitely not release in February.
Pushing Guardians to 2023 may just be too late, so it could be possible that Vol. 3 may find a new slot, i.e. July 2022. It will be perfect because James Gunn will get some more time after The Suicide Squad, and a July end release will provide almost an entire year. If Vol. 3 is in fact pushed to 2023, then Ant-Man and the Wasp 3 may take the July 2022 spot.
Circling back to Black Panther 2, there were rumors that Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger may be on his way back to the MCU, but Kevin Feige shot it down while speaking to BET. He said:
“The honest answer to that is that is pure rumor and speculation, because Mr. Coogler is just only in recent weeks sitting down at his keyboard and beginning to outline the movie. It’s early, so nothing is set yet in any way that far, because Mr. Coogler is sitting down and will share it with [producer] Nate Moore and myself in coming weeks.”
Now talking about returning characters, the likes of Shuri, Queen Ramonda, M’Baku, Nakia, Okoye and even W’Kabi could be returning for Black Panther 2. Another character who is confirmed to be coming back is Martin Freeman’s Everett Ross. Freeman recently told Uproxx that his character probably wasn’t snapped out of existence in Avengers: Infinity War. He went on to talk about when Black Panther 2 will begin production and obviously, he said 2021:
“The last I heard, we won’t be doing it next year. So, it might be 2021 when we’re making the next Black Panther. That’s all I know.”
Ryan Coogler talked about the challenges of bringing Black Panther 2 in the MCU. He said:
“I think the pressure is kind of always going to be there. I’ve had a chance to make three feature films, each one of them had its own very specific type of pressure. In the process of it, it feels insurmountable each time. When it comes to making a sequel, I’ve never done it before, a sequel to something that I’ve directed myself,” he added. “So I think there’s gonna be a lot of pressure there, but what we’re going to try to do is just focus on the work, like we always do. Really try to go step by step and try to quiet everything else around us, really focus on trying to make something that has some type of meaning.”
We’d love it if Namor were the villain of Black Panther 2. Let’s see what happens.
