Black Panther 2: Danai Gurira Confirms Return as Okoye
Black Panther star Danai Gurira confirmed expectations she’ll be reprising her role as [...]
Black Panther star Danai Gurira confirmed expectations she'll be reprising her role as Wakanda's Dora Milaje leader Okoye under returning director Ryan Coogler in the Marvel Studios blockbuster's sequel.
"Listen, listen... literally, I have no information, that's the beauty of our conversation right now," Gurira told MTV at San Diego Comic-Con when promoting her final season of The Walking Dead. "Mr. Coogler says, 'Tell them we're working hard, and you're in it.' That's all I got for you [laughs]."
Asked about the return of co-star Michael B. Jordan — whose Erik "Killmonger" Stevens was killed off in the first film — a tight-lipped Gurira laughed.
"We all love Michael, we can never get enough Michael B," she said. "I mean, you can never get enough Michael B, we all know this."
When ET asked Gurira's co-star Angela Bassett in January if "everybody" would reunite for the sequel, Bassett answered, "I would assume so."
Her husband, actor Courtney B. Vance, was more straight forward: "Yes, just go ahead and say it, yes. Everyone will be there. Just yes, yes. Including Michael B., yes."
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige later told BET in June the return of Jordan's Killmonger — either through the Ancestral Plane or otherwise — was "pure rumor."
"The honest answer to that is that is pure rumor and speculation, because Mr. Coogler is just only in recent weeks sitting down at his keyboard and beginning to outline the movie," Feige said.
"It's early, so nothing is set yet in any way that far, because Mr. Coogler is sitting down and will share it with [producer] Nate Moore and myself in coming weeks."
Gurira's fan-favorite Okoye went on to appear in Avengers: Infinity War before returning in Avengers: Endgame, where she kept in close contact with the Avengers during the five-year period in which Wakanda's King T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) was dead — one of the trillions of lives claimed by the Infinity Stone-powered snap of Thanos (Josh Brolin).
Marvel Studios has yet to formally announce Black Panther 2 and a release date has not been revealed.