Black Panther 2 Release Date Confirmed At D23

Black Panther director Ryan Coogler took the stage alongside Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige this weekend during Disney's D23 Expo to officially announce the release date for the upcoming Black Panther sequel--which, apparently, will not be officially called Black Panther 2.

Whatever the sequel's real name may be, it will be hitting theaters as part of Marvel's ever-expanding Phase 4 efforts with a release date of May 6, 2022.

That may seem far away--because it is. Coogler, who returns as writer and director for the sequel, admitted as much, but explained that they're eager to get this one right.

"We're definitely taking our time with this one," the director said. "We just want it to be right."

That's understandable. The first Black Panther movie, released in 2018, was exceptionally well-received, building plenty of hype for Avengers: Infinity War, which released shortly afterward. The Avengers' arrival in Wakanda partway through Infinity War was one of the movie's highlights.

In our original Black Panther review, we said it's "a top tier Marvel movie with all the humor, style, action, passion, and fun that the MCU has come to embody" and "a cultural event that's going to be hard for Marvel to top." Naturally, we're looking forward to the sequel.

We don't know a heck of a lot else about Black Panther 2, however. The movie was conspicuously absent during Marvel's San Diego Comic-Con panel in July, and the portion of Disney's D23 presentation devoted to BP2 was brief. That said, there's been plenty of other news out of D23: more returning MCU characters in WandaVision's cast, the reveal of Disney Plus's Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight shows, more details about the Loki and Falcon and Winter Soldier shows, and more.

On the Star Wars side, Disney confirmed that Ewan McGregor is returning to the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, announced the release date for Star Wars Clone Wars Season 7, and revealed a Disney+ show starring very dead Rogue One characters.