Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler has revealed that he was once a comic book nerd.
"I would read them all the time before I became a full-time jock when I was younger and was just playing sports all the time," the director explained to Entertainment Weekly. "Even when I was doing that, I was still engaging in pop culture, watching Batman: The Animated Series or Power Rangers or the Batman movies. But I wasn't knee-deep in it, reading every book. Then, when I got to college, I found myself with a little more time to reengage with it again."
Following the success of the Rocky spinoff film Creed in 2015, Marvel Studios entered negotiations with Coogler to direct Black Panther. Coogler was confirmed as director in January 2016. The first Black Panther went on to make over $1 billion at the global box office and earn an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination, a rare feat for a comic book movie. Coogler was confirmed to have closed a deal to write and direct Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in October 2018. While unconfirmed by Marvel Studios at this time, the director is reportedly a potential front-runner to helm the upcoming crossover event film Avengers: Secret Wars.
Wakanda Forever Will Honor Chadwick Boseman
Following the passing of T'Challa/Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman in 2020, Marvel Studios revealed that the character would not be recast. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently explained that the reason they decided to not recast T'Challa was that the "world is still processing the loss of Chad." Coogler recently stated that he reworked the script for Wakanda Forever after Boseman's death to tell a story that honored Boseman and helped the cast, crew and fans grieve the actor's loss.
"I had to find a way that I felt like I could keep going and a way that our Black Panther family could keep going," Coogler explained. "I started to come up with a film that had elements of the film that we had just finished writing, but also applied the themes that the people who were hurting just as much as me could actually perform and execute and come out on the other side whole."
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will center on the leaders of Wakanda fighting to protect their world from the intervening nation of Talocan in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Tenoch Huerta, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Martin Freeman and Angela Bassett star in the upcoming MCU sequel, which opens in theaters on Nov. 11 as the final film in Phase Four of the MCU.
Source: Entertainment Weekly