As if Infinity War is not enough. Now that IW is almost upon us, everyone wants to know what‘s next from Marvel (everyone except James Cameron, of course). With the historic success of Black Panther, Marvel Mastermind Kevin Feige was fielding questions about when its sequel was coming one the IW junket. But Feige said it’s not up to him, it’s up to BP director Ryan Coogler, which is exactly what the answer should be.

When Collider’s own Steve Weintraub recently spoke with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige at the press day for Avengers: Infinity War, he asked if Coogler will definitely be back for Black Panther 2, and while it’s not a done deal it sounds very, very good:

“We definitely want Ryan to come back and that’s actively being worked out right now. When will it be? A lot of it will be when Ryan wants to and not rushing anything, but I think we have an idea of when it will be. But, again, [we’re] not going to announce any post-Avengers 4 movies until hopefully after Avengers 4, which is another reason we’re not going to Comic-Con.”

As for the success of Black Panther itself, Steve asked Feige if the wildly positive response altered any of Marvel’s plans. It turns out they were hedging their bets in the other direction, as Feige says their plans would have changed if Black Panther had not been received so warmly:

“The success of Panther is so amazing and makes us happy for so many reasons, and it certainly exceeded our lofty expectations. But our expectations were always lofty, so we had built a plan, not the least of which was centering so much of Infinity War in those locations and with some of those characters, that [its success] just says, ‘Let’s stick to this plan.’ It would have been much more disruptive if it had not worked. Then we would have had to change a lot of what we were thinking about, but it really just solidifies and excites us to continue to move forward in the directions we’re heading in.”

[From Collider]

I do think Ryan was the heart and soul of BP. I believe Marvel was smart enough to give him their guidelines but let him have enough space to make his vision. And they were smart enough to market it that way, with Ryan leading the charge. I hope Ryan wants to come back, I can’t imagine the sequel without him. The Collider writer makes the point that holding back on filming the sequel to accommodate the director veers away from the Marvel mold, which has emphasized a tight timeframe for sequels in the past. Whereas I think there are multi-layers of marketing at play right now, I do believe Feige knows enough to not mess with BP in any way.

That said, I am not sure what his second quote is about. Infinity War was in the can when Black Panther was released, right? Or is he just speaking in circles so as not to release one ounce of information about Infinity War? The way I read it is Feige is trying to be modest. Like, he’s trying not to just outright say, ‘we knew Black Panther was going to mow down all past, present and future competition and never doubted for a minute it would dominate cinemas everywhere.’

This doesn’t have to do with this story but it was linked in the Collider article – apparently their staff sorted all the Avengers characters into their Hogwarts houses. I’m a Ravensclaw and I have to say, I’m digging our new additions.

Photo credit: WENN Photos