Three years ago, the Marvel Cinematic Universe dropped a boulder in the lake of pop culture. After years of primarily making movies about white heroes, the world's biggest big screen superhero franchise unleashed Ryan Coogler's Black Panther on to the world, and in doing so created a cinematic landmark. The release date of the film is one that is going to be celebrated for many, many years to come, and today Marvel has reveled in the anniversary by posting some beautiful behind-the-scenes photos:
The hashtag #WakandaForever was trending earlier in the day with fans celebrating the third birthday of Black Panther, which came out on February 16, 2018, and Marvel Studios added to the conversation by positing a batch of photos taken from the making of the movie by photographer Elie. While it's hard to specifically tell, it does appear that all of these shots were taken in the same area, if not during the shooting of the same sequence – namely the battle for Wakanda (not to be confused with the Battle Of Wakanda, which plays out in Avengers: Infinity War).
The shots capture the principal stars of the blockbuster, including Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, and Daniel Kaluuya in their full costumes, and Ryan Coogler can be spotted in the photo with Kaluyya.
And it wasn't only the Marvel Studios official account that reflected on fond memories in time for Black Panther's third anniversary. Lupita Nyong'o also posted a set of photos herself, though hers seem to be taken from the promotional tour for the film and the Hollywood premiere. You can check out the shots below:
This, of course, has been an extremely hard year for Black Panther fans, as the world was devastated this past summer to learn that star Chadwick Boseman had passed away following many years battling cancer. With that in mind, reflecting on the remarkable success of the 2018 film is a bit different than it has been in the last couple of years, but what isn't different is that we are still in awe of his remarkable performance, and he will forever live on as a pop culture icon.
Black Panther 2, which doesn't presently have an official title, but will again feature Ryan Coogler at the helm, is now in pre-production, and filming will likely begin in the coming months. While the plot of the movie is unknown, many of the original's stars are returning to reprise their respective roles, and Tenoch Huerta has come aboard to play the movie's villain (it's been speculated he will be playing Hector Ayala a.k.a. White Tiger, but that has not been confirmed). The sequel will be coming out a few months after Black Panther's fourth anniversary, presently set to hit theaters everywhere on July 8, 2022.
