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The success of Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther has the Marvel universe thinking sequel. And Kevin Feige — the president of Marvel Studios — has already started kicking around the idea. When Variety asked if Coogler will be coming back to direct he answered, “I hope so.” When asked if he wants him to come back he said, “Absolutely.”
In 2008, when Feige helped plot the map toward The Avengers he’d imagined that the universe would eventually come to feature Black Panther but he didn’t know how soon. Now, a decade later, he realizes how important the film is. “We were doing something that people had been waiting their entire lives to see,” Feige told Variety. “That was something that a white male that grew up in the United State can take for granted… Everyone deserves to see themselves reflected on that silver screen and the inspiration that comes from it.”
The response to the film has been inspiring to say the least. The results are all but in, and Black Panther has shattered expectations to become the highest grossing debut film in February—ever. The film also has the fifth highest grossing opening weekend of all-time so far. And the estimates just keep going up. In total, it could rake in $235 million in the U.S, and over $400 million worldwide.
Black Panther destroys all the myths studios and executives have spun over the years to not make a film featuring an all-Black cast. “It won’t do well overseas” was one, and that idea has gone down in flames with the film’s success. “Will people be able to relate to a film with an African accent” is another. A challenge Chadwick Boseman himself has spoken about. “There was a time period where people would ask me questions about whether or not an audience could sit through a movie with a lead character who spoke with that accent…I became adamant about the fact that that is not true,” said Boseman at a press conference in the lead up to the film. “That the intonations and melodies inside of an African accent are just as classical as a British one, or a European one, and that all of the emotions and aspects of a character can be shown, and expressions can be shown through that accent, and we have to take this opportunity to show that.”
The reviews are in, and many in the diaspora at large are screaming “Wakanda forever.” Rotten Tomatoes still has the film hovering at 97 percent. Now, the only question is whether we’ll get to see Shuri don the mask.
