Marvel is recovering nicely following the clusterf-ck firing of James Gunn, hiring new directors including a pair of women, Cate Shortland and Chloe Zhao, and now they have locked down Ryan Coogler for Black Panther 2. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and Coogler made Marvel’s best movie to date—have you watched Black Panther on Netflix? GodDAMN does it hold up—so it’s great news all around he will be making the sequel. There is absolutely no information about who is returning or what the story will be, but with Coogler in charge, I could go until opening day without knowing a single other piece of information and still be in line to see it.
Of course, no one knows when opening day will be. Coogler is scripting as well, so it will likely be 2021 before Black Panther 2 is ready. We could all be dead by then! The joke leading up to Black Panther was to wish for the world to hold together just long enough to see it, and now we have to make it all the way to 2021, AT LEAST. Coogler also has a “smaller movie”—redundant modifier because every movie is a smaller movie than Marvel, except Star Wars—in the works, which he may or may not try to fit in before going full-Marvel. If he does go off and make this other movie, it could easily be 2022 before we see Black Panther 2. Look I’m glad Marvel isn’t rushing it and doesn’t seem to be putting projects on the assembly line before there is a clear vision for it, but expecting the world to still be sane by the 2020s honestly feels like tempting fate. This is not even a joke, this is a sincere plea to the universe: Please let us live long enough to see Black Panther 2.
