Black Panther Is Becoming A Disney+ Series
Disney and Marvel have announced that they are developing a new series for Disney+ set in the land of Wakanda from Black Panther.
This article is more than 2 years old
Last year, Marvel announced and confirmed a whole slew of new television projects for Disney+, covering almost every aspect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yet Disney kept one new project under wraps until now, as a new Wakanda series is in development for Disney+, with Black Panther director Ryan Coogler.
Little is known about this project, other than that it is part of a five-year television deal with Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media. Since Disney announced that no one will be taking the role of T’Challa / Black Panther after the death of Chadwick Boseman in Black Panther II, it’s also safe to assume there won’t be a replacement in this new series either. But considering the rich world of Wakanda that Coogler created with Black Panther, there should be plenty of new stories to tell in this land, away from T’Challa.
Black Panther 2 is planning to start filming in Atlanta on July 2021, and it is rumored that filming could take as long as six months. Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, and Angela Bassett are all returning, and while the character of Black Panther will no longer be in this series, it is said that Wright’s Shuri character could be taking on the film’s lead role.
But considering that 2018’s Black Panther was one of the highest-grossing films of all-time, making over $1.3 billion worldwide, it’s kind of surprising that it’s taken this long to get more Black Panther material out into the world. It looks as though Black Panther 2 likely won’t come out until mid-to-late 2022, and it’s unclear when this new Wakanda series will hit either. Yet with this Wakanda series being announced with Disney+ already having a full slate of shows, it’s uncertain when we could return to Wakanda once more.
One of these upcoming shows, What If…?, which is scheduled to premiere in mid-2021, will be the last time Chadwick Boseman plays the role of T’Challa. Boseman recorded the role before his death, and from the looks of the trailer, it seems as though the episode will show what would have happened if Yondu’s ship picked up T’Challa instead of Star-Lord.
But Disney already has a full roster of shows coming to their streaming service, with some shows already in pre-production that won’t premiere until late 2022. While Black Panther 2 is part of Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s also unclear if this new show will be part of Phase Four, or – more likely – part of Phase Five. While Ryan Coogler is signed on as producer, Disney also hasn’t announced if he will write and direct, as he has for these first two Black Panther movies.
Yet setting an entire series in Wakanda makes perfect sense, as Black Panther showed audiences only a glimpse of what that area had to offer. With a culture full of tradition, and technological advancements far greater than our own, there’s plenty of opportunities within Wakanda for a new Disney+ series.
