Director Ryan Coogler has earned near-universal acclaim for his work on Black Panther, and if Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has his way, the filmmaker will return for a potential sequel.
Asked whether the 31-year-old director will come back for Black Panther 2, Feige told Variety, “I hope so.” He added that it’s something he would “absolutely” like to happen.
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However, Feige wouldn’t say for sure whether there are plans for multiple Black Panther films. “We always say we work on one movie at a time,” he said. “If you have any good ideas, put it in the movie you’re making. If you don’t, you might not be able to make another one. That said, Panther has been around for more than half a century in the comic books and there are many, many stories to tell.”
Black Panther is proving a massive critical success, already certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a score of 97 percent from 175 reviews. That makes it the highest-rated superhero film ever on the platform. It’s also projected to be a huge commercial success, with the anticipated domestic opening of $165 million projected earlier this week now climbing toward $180 million.
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Directed by Ryan Coogler from a script he wrote with Joe Robert Cole, Black Panther stars Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Daniel Kaluuya as W’Kabi, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Angela Bassett as Ramonda, Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross, Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue, Winston Duke as M’Baku and Forest Whitaker as Zuri. The film opens Feb. 16.