In late August, Black Panther Chadwick Boseman passed away at the age of 43 following a four-year battle with colon cancer. What his passing means for Black Panther 2 still remains unclear, it hasn’t been announced yet whether the role of T’Challa will be cast or if a new character will take the Black Panther mantle. As far as the supporting cast is concerned, many of the principal players from the first Black Panther movie will be back, but if you were looking forward to seeing Rihanna as one of the new faces, prepare to be disappointed.
Word started making the rounds on social media lately that Rihanna had joined the Black Panther II cast, but this has been debunked. It turns out this claim originated from some Google misinformation, because if you had typed Black Panther 2 into the search engine, she was listed alongside familiar names like Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke. As of this writing, Rihanna is no longer among that lineup, although currently listed next to Angela Bassett is Eric Bana, who played The Hulk back in the pre-MCU days. Until proven otherwise, we can reasonably assume Bana is also not participating in Black Panther 2.
Now, that’s not to say it’s impossible that Rhianna could be looked at for Black Panther 2 later on. After all, she does have some acting experience under her belt, with her credits including Battleship, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Ocean’s 8 and Guava Island. However, between her continued singing career and business endeavors, it seems unlikely she’ll be venturing to Wakanda, although we’ll obviously let you know if that changes.
Thus far, the only new actor who’s been reported as actually being looked at to join Black Panther 2 is Narcos: Mexico’s Tenoch Huerta. While nothing’s set in stone yet, should Huerta sign on the dotted line to appear in the sequel, he would play one of the antagonists. With Black Panther 2 reportedly set to begin filming in July 2021, we’ll presumably start hearing about other new actors who are being lined up in the coming months.
So who is officially confirmed to appear in Black Panther 2? Thus far, we can look forward to the return of Leitita Wright’s Shuri, Dani Gurira’s Okoye, Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia, Winston Duke’s M’Baku, Angela Bassett’s Ramonda and Martin Freeman’s Everett K. Ross. As mentioned earlier, we still don’t know yet if T’Challa will be involved in the story or not, though reportedly Shuri will have a more prominent role this time around. This has led some fans to speculate that like in the comics, she could become the new Black Panther.
Behind the cameras, along with reprising his directing duties, Ryan Coogler also penned the script. Shortly after Chadwick Boseman’s death, Coogler revealed that he’d been unaware that the actor was gravely ill, resulting in him writing lines for Boseman that we’ll never get to see him say. Marvel has already made it abundantly clear that Black Panther 2 will not include a digital recreation of Boseman, akin to what Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker did for Carrie Fisher.
As things stand now, Black Panther 2 is still slated for May 6, 2022. Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on the sequel’s progress, and look through our Marvel movies guide to learn what else is coming up in Phase 4 and beyond.
