'Black Panther 2': Ryan Coogler is going back to Wakanda to write-direct sequel — and Twitter is there

Coogler forever! As in Ryan Coogler, the 32-year-old wunderkind behind 2018’s highest-grossing comic book movie — heck, highest-grossing movie, period — Black Panther. Ever since the Marvel Studios-backed film debuted to record-setting numbers in February, speculation has been rampant about whether Coogler would return for the title character’s further adventures in Wakanda and beyond …once he regains his physical form, of course. After all, the director declined to helm next month’s Creed II after launching that wildly successful Rocky-adjacent franchise in 2015. But Marvel clearly can’t envision a Wakanda without Coogler in it. Multiple sources are reporting that the studio has brokered a sure-to-be-lucrative deal with Coogler to write and direct the second Black Panther feature, which will likely go before cameras late next year or in 2020, when the Marvel Cinematic Universe boldly enters its post-Thanos phase.

Coogler is the fifth director in Marvel history to helm the first sequel to a hero’s maiden MCU adventure, a club that so far includes Jon Favreau, James Gunn, Jon Watts, and Joss Whedon. And one imagines that he’ll have big plans in store for T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and Wakanda’s other beloved citizens — from Okoye (Danai Gurira) and Shuri (Letitia Wright) to M’Baku (Winston Duke) and Ramonda (Angela Bassett). One person who likely won’t be back is Coogler’s frequent collaborator Michael B. Jordan, whose ferocious performance as T’Challa’s cousin and would-be usurper, Erik Killmonger, has made him one of Marvel’s most popular bad guys. On the other hand, there’s a chance that the MCU will undergo some alterations as the surviving Avengers try to undo the effects of that apocalyptic Infinity War, so perhaps there’s a way in which Jordan can muscle his way back into continuity.

As you might expect, news of Coogler’s return went over very well on Twitter, not that the social media-shy director would see all the praise and story pitches.

The crown may hang heavy on T’Challa’s head, but for Coogler, it’s gotta feel good to be king of both Wakanda and Marvel.

Read more at Yahoo Entertainment:

• Our revised history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, now with ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’

• ‘Black Panther’ breakout Shuri crowned the best Disney princess by social media

• Original ‘Avengers’ writer explains his dramatically different version