Los Angeles Chargers Player Drops Awesome ‘Black Panther’ Reference on Sunday Night Football

There’s np denying the influence and impact of Marvel Studios’ Black Panther, as the film continues to be a topic of discussion heading into awards season and Academy Award nominations.

That influence stretches to the National Football League, where offensive tackle Russell Okung paid tribute to the film in a humorous way during his intro for the Los Angeles Chargers game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football. Watch it below:

The popularity of Black Panther has continued to swell, prompting Marvel Studios to fast track a sequel that’s likely to premiere in theaters in a few years. Director Ryan Coogler is returning to direct and write the film, and he’s currently working on the script for Black Panther 2.

Coogler recently spoke with IndieWire about the pressures of making a followup to such a transcendent film, and he’s not shirking away.

“I think the pressure is kind of always going to be there,” Coogler said. “I’ve had a chance to make three feature films, each one of them had its own very specific type of pressure. In the process of it, it feels insurmountable each time.”

Coogler made a point to mention that, despite this being his first sequel and his second big budget studio movie, he’s not kowtowing to any expectations that people might have. Instead, he’s going to make a movie that he wants to see.

“When it comes to making a sequel, I’ve never done it before, a sequel to something that I’ve directed myself,” Coogler said. “So I think there’s gonna be a lot of pressure there, but what we’re going to try to do is just focus on the work, like we always do. Really try to go step by step and try to quiet everything else around us, really focus on trying to make something that has some type of meaning.”

We’ll see how it turns out when Black Panther 2 premieres in theaters. So far, the movie does not yet have a release date, but fans will likely see the character show up next in Avengers 4 when it premieres in theaters on May 3, 2019.