It’s time to return to Wakanda with Marvel Studios kicking off production of the second film in the ‘Black Panther’ franchise.
Ryan Coogler returns as director of ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ but it’s unclear how the story will move forward minus its lead star Chadwick Boseman, who died last year following a four-year battle with colon cancer.
As the crew reported to Pinewood Studios in Atlanta, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige told Variety they are going in a direction that would make Boseman happy. “It’s clearly very emotional without Chad. But everyone is also very excited to bring the world of Wakanda back to the public and back to the fans. We’re going to do it in a way that would make Chad proud,” he said.
Not much is available about the upcoming project, with plot and cast details still under wraps. However, it is expected that Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya, Winston Duke and Angela Bassett are likely to reprise their roles from the original film.
There has also been fan speculation that Wright, who is T’Challa or Black Panther’s sister Shuri in the film, could be a contender to don the mask, following the same trajectory as the comics.
‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ is set to debut on July 8, 2022, a year from the release of Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’, which is out next week.
Other Marvel films in the pipeline for this year are ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ on September 3, along with ‘Eternals’ on November 9 and ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ on December 17.
