A lot of fans will agree that the first Black Panther movie is among the best MCU movies so far. While the sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, may not have reached the same heights, it’s one of the more successful films among a string of mediocre box office entries. Thus, a lot of fans were excited to hear Ryan Coogler was working on Black Panther 3, but it’s honestly unclear how excited he is about the movie.
Coogler is riding high right now following the success of Sinners. The movie, starring his frequent collaborator Michael B. Jordan, is having an incredible box office run, especially for an original project. Speaking with The Atlantic, while the director says he wants to make another Black Panther movie, it really sounds like he’d rather make more original projects. He said…
The thing is, not everybody can do this, so I feel a responsibility, too. Yeah, I hope to make another Panther movie, but the people who I look up to the most as filmmakers, they do this. They make original movies on a massive scale. And I think that each time they do it, they push the medium forward—if the audience decides they like the movie, and they decide that there’s a place for me in those ranks.
Coogler saying he feels a “responsibility” makes it sound like making Black Panther 3 is something he feels he needs to do, though not necessarily something he wants to do. To be sure, if this movie were to be made with a different director behind the camera, a lot of fans would become instantly concerned about just what sort of film they were going to get.
Officially, Black Panther 3 isn’t even a real movie yet. It has yet to be announced as an upcoming Marvel movie. The only reason we know it’s under consideration is that Denzel Washington revealed he had talked to Ryan Coogler about a potential role.
There’s frequently something of a battle within Hollywood between original stories and larger franchises. Many directors specifically stay away from franchises, while others seem to gravitate toward them. Coogler says the directors that he looks up to tend to make larger-scale original projects, and he’s very clear that’s the sort of group he wants to be part of.
That’s not to say it’s impossible to do both. One director who is likely in the class that Coogler is talking about is Christopher Nolan. He does make “original movies on a massive scale.” However, he also made three well-regarded Batman movies in the middle of all that. It is possible to do it all.
Considering the success of Sinners so far, it’s very likely that Ryan Coogler will get his chance to make more original movies. Any studio would love to see the success of a movie like Sinners, especially considering it didn’t cost nearly what a major franchise blockbuster usually costs. If Ryan Coogler truly wants to make Black Panther 3, I hope he does. In the end, as long as he’s making the movies he wants to make, moviegoers will be the winners.
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