The Black Panther franchise is one of Marvel’s most beloved, so it’s understandable that fans have been looking for any sort of details on the third film in the trilogy. Details have been scarce, and director Ryan Coogler has stayed busy as well with other projects, but now we finally have a major update on Black Panther 3’s release, and it could be very important for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole as well.
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Coogler sat down with the New York Times to talk about his hit original film Sinners as well as what the future holds moving forward, and it wasn’t long before Black Panther 3 came up. The interview revealed that Black Panther 3 is slated to hit in 2028, and while that’s major news in itself, it’s also worth noting that the new date sets Black Panther 3 after Avengers: Secret Wars, which will likely act as a reset for the entirety of the MCU.
That means Coogler’s film will be one of the first places that fans will see the new MCU in effect, and that could mean any number of things like a new status quo for the world itself, as well as changes to heroes and villains, including even the possibility of recastings or changes to key moments that previously happened to better fit whatever the new story moving forward is. It’s an exciting time for the MCU, and Black Panther 3 will be right in the thick of that exciting new era.
Coogler also talks about the effect of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, revealing that it wasn’t until he was done with that film that he allowed himself to picture a long career. “There were points in that movie where it felt unfinishable,” Coggler said, “So when we put it out and I was happy with the film, I felt like, ‘OK, I could do this for the rest of my life.’”
When asked if he had started contemplating his career after Black Panther 3, Coogler said, “To be honest with you, yes. The image I get is a green meadow with Bay Area fog on it, and it’s dawn. That’s what I see after that movie, because it feels like open land, open opportunity.”
Wakanda Forever was always going to be a challenging endeavor, as it was the first film in the franchise after the tragic death of star Chadwick Boseman. Boseman was beloved, and his portrayal of T’Challa was iconic, so Wakanda Forever had a difficult path to walk, as it attempted to deal with the real-world tragedy through the film’s story and still tell a story that propelled the franchise forward, all while mixing in the other moving parts of the MCU that needed to take place. The fact that Coogler knocked it out of the park is praiseworthy to be sure, and now he will return to the world of Black Panther for at least one more go-round.
As for why the film was pushed to 2028, Coogler was hard at work on Sinners, which became a massive hit and created an entirely new IP, which isn’t easy in this day and age. In a previous interview with Deadline, Coogler revealed why he ultimately pushed Black Panther 3 after Sinners.
“It is interesting for you to ask where [Sinners] came from, and timing it before Black Panther 3,” Coogler said. “It was my realization that I had been on this path of what I could make and what I wanted to make. And realizing they had all been in the service of stories that were outside of myself.”
“But I still haven’t brought something that was just me. And how funny is it that when I say, Hey, I’m making a horror movie, and people are surprised. But if you know me, I love those movies. If I had to reckon with the fact that the audience doesn’t truly know me. And I got scared that I would look up and be 50 and would still be in that situation. And by then, I might not have anything to say. So the movie was made because I had to make it right now. And with the people that I wanted to make it with, it had to happen now. Or if not, it wouldn’t. I feared that. And that was why now,” Coogler said.
Black Panther 3 is slated to hit theaters in 2028. Avengers: Doomsday will release in theaters on December 18, 2026.
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