YIBAMBE! Having delivered a critical, commercial, and cultural smash in the form of Southern Gothic horror Sinners barely seven months ago, Ryan Coogler could’ve been forgiven for following up his Spring down in the Mississippi Delta with Smoke and Stack by laying low for a little while to recharge his creative batteries ahead of tackling his next project. But Ryan Coogler isn’t just any filmmaker, and as such, the in-demand auteur is already cooking his next project: Black Panther 3! Speaking at Deadline‘s Contenders event this weekend, the filmmaker himself confirmed that he’s hard at work on his Black Panther trilogy capper — and you can check out the moment he dropped the news below;
When asked by Deadline‘s Mike Fleming Jr. how quickly he expects to get Black Panther 3 up and running, Coogler replied, “We’re working on it. We’re working hard. It’s next […] Yeah, it’s the next movie.” Now that doesn’t give us a hell of a lot to go on in terms of when we might expect to see Coogler’s follow-up to 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hit our screens, admittedly. That being said though, there is a conspicuous slot for an 18 February, 2028 as-yet-unconfirmed MCU movie that Black Panther 3 could potentially fill, fitting Coogler’s current pattern of releasing new films every 3-4 years.
Beyond simply knowing Coogler’s working on the movie as his next priority then, further info on what our return to Wakanda will entail is pretty scant at this point, save for the still-astonishing casual admission from Denzel Washington last year that he’s set to appear in the Marvel threequel in a secretive role. As for whether Black Panther 3 will see Letitia Wright’s Shuri continue as the Wakandan superhero (despite having seemingly relinquished the mantle at the end of the last movie), mark T’Challa Jr.’s accession to the throne, or even introduce an entirely new Black Panther in some universe-resetting post-Secret Wars twist remains very much to be seen. But one thing we do know for certain: if there’s a new Ryan Coogler movie coming, then we are already seated. Even without a release date. Even without a shot having been filmed. Even without a sniff of a plot. We. Are. Seated. Wakanda Forever!
