He's Back! Black Panther's Director Is Returning To Write/Direct The Sequel

(HWR) “Ryan Coogler is going back to Wakanda.

Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the filmmaker behind Marvel’s landmark Black Panther has quietly closed a deal to write and direct the sequel.

While the move was expected — Marvel wanted to keep the creative team as intact as possible and a sequel was never in any real doubt — the timing was always unclear.”

This is huge news for a few different reasons. The first is that Ryan Coogler is one of the best rising stars in the director world today. Even if you haven’t seen ‘Black Panther’, which means you live under a rock, you have probably seen ‘Creed’, which was outstanding. He wrote/directed for both of those projects, and I love his style. The dialogue always seems natural, whether its for Adonis Creed, or King T’Challa. His return also helps with the continuity in development for the character of T’Challa. We can see with other characters in the MCU like Thor, who had 3 very different directors in his solo movies, that that lack of direction sort of hurt his development into what he is at this stage (thank god for Taika Waititi).

STUDS! The biggest thing I’m looking for in the sequel is an upgrade in SFX. My biggest issue leaving the theater is that they really just looked like shit at points, especially in the final fight between Black Panther and Killmonger. If that gets a major upgrade and the writing/story remains even at par with the original, I see no reason why this couldn’t overtake the original in the box office. A huge obstacle is going to be replacing Killmonger, who was one of the best, and most 3 dimensional, villains in the MCU. They will also presumably have to move away from Killmongers motive, stopping the continued inequity faced by Africans across the globe by force, to something bigger in scale and less capable of provoking empathy. I don’t know the comics well enough to guess what that villian might be, but I’m excited to find out. Let’s look at some Coogler highlights!

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