Mark your calendars because Marvel has announced the name and release date for the Black Panther sequel.
The film will be titled Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and it will hit theaters on July 8, 2022, according to a master trailer featuring upcoming releases from Marvel Studios.
Details on the movie’s plot aren’t out yet, but Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has made it clear T’Challa would not be recast out of respect for late, leading man Chadwick Boseman. Boseman died last year after a lengthy battle with colon cancer.
“Chadwick Boseman was an immensely talented actor and an inspirational individual who affected all of our lives,” Feige said in December, per USA Today. “His portrayal of T’Challa the Black Panther is iconic and transcends any iteration of the character in any other medium from Marvel’s past. It’s for that reason we will not recast the character.”
Many fan theories suggest shifting the film’s focus to Shuri, T’Challa’s genius younger sister, who eventually becomes the Black Panther in the Marvel comics. Letitia Wright portrayed the character in the first movie.
In a recent interview, Boseman’s costar Lupita Nyong’o said Black Panther director Ryan Coogler had reworked the film to hold space for the loss of Boseman.
“The way which he has reshaped the second movie is so respectful of the loss we’ve all experienced as a cast and as a world. So, it feels spiritually and emotionally correct to do this,” the actress told Yahoo Entertainment.
“And hopefully, what I do look forward to, is getting back together and honoring what he started with us and holding his light through it,” she continued. “Because he left us a lot of light that we’re still going to be bathing in. I know that for sure.”
Wright and Nyong’o are expected to return for the sequel along with original castmates Angela Bassett, Winston Duke and Danai Gurira.
In addition to the sequel, Movie Web reported Coogler is working on an unnamed Wakanda series for Disney+.
