After months of speculation, Marvel Studios has confirmed its choice of director for Black Panther. Ryan Coogler, director of Fruitvale Station and Creed, will helm the upcoming movie.
Despite being a young choice for such a high-profile project (at 29, he’s a decade younger than the film’s leading man, Chadwick Boseman), Coogler’s critical pedigree is far more impressive than several of Marvel’s other new directors. Fruitvale Station won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the Best First Film award at Cannes in 2013, and Creed is currently receiving glowing reviews.
Marvel spent the best part of a year deliberating over which director to hire for Black Panther, who along with Captain Marvel and the Inhumans marks a new phase for the franchise. Selma director Ava Duvernay was rumored to be the frontrunner before she turned down the job. She has already tweeted her congratulations to Coogler.
https://twitter.com/AVAETC/status/686713603492196352
Chadwick Boseman will make his first appearance as the Wakandan superhero in Captain America: Civil War this year, with his solo Black Panther movie scheduled for 2018. The film is reportedly being written by Joe Robert Cole, who was recruited from Marvel’s in-house writing program like Guardians of the Galaxy scribe Nicole Perlman.
Screengrab via The Movie Times/YouTube
