Black Panther Director Confirms Major MCU Character Was Present in Every Version of Sequel

Marvel Studios tried to culminate their Phase Four storyline with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and it pretty much succeeded. The film showed us that Shuri (Letitia Wright) took over the mantle of Black Panther after the death of Chadwick Boseman. We also get introduced to some new characters like Riri Williams (Dominque Thorne) and Namor the Submariner (Tenoch Huerta). The latter of the two is the films main antagonist and was an integral part of the sequel. People were wondering if the characters was in the previous script that was written before Boseman's passing and now writer / director Ryan Coogler has revealed that Namor was indeed always intended to be the villain of the film. During a recent interview with The New York Times, the director confirmed that both Namor and Valentine Allegra De Fontaine

"Yeah. But it was a combination," Coogler told The New York Times. "Val [the C.I.A. director, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus] was much more active. It was basically a three-way conflict between Wakanda, the U.S. and Talokan. But it was all mostly from the child's perspective."

"Yeah, nobody was shoehorned in or asked to be put into the movie or anything like that. Actually, in this version, [Louis-Dreyfus's role] was pared back in order to make space for dealing with T'Challa's death. And we had Val in there before she even appeared in any of the other movies, before "Black Widow" and [the series] "Falcon and the Winter Soldier." People assume that we were told to put her in, but she was there from the beginning." The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director added.

The studio unveiled their plans for the next three years, with two new Avengers movies being announced. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars will both make their way into theaters in 2025. One thing that wasn't announced on the slate was a third Black Panther movie. Even though it's all but guaranteed that fans will receive a third Black Panther movie, Marvel producer Nate Moore revealed during a recent interview that the studio and Ryan Coogler both want to see the fan response to the highly-anticipated sequel before agreeing to do a third film in the franchise. 

"That's a great question. To be honest, this is not me trying to not answer the question," Moore said. "We really want to see how audiences receive the film, and I think Ryan's really interested to see how the film plays before we decide. There are certainly ideas we've floated around of what a third film could be if we get to make it. But until the movie comes out, we're a bit superstitious in that way. We don't want to count our chickens, because you never know what's going to happen."

The most recent Marvel Studios film to hit theaters was Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In the sequel, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M'Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba), fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T'Challa's death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.  

Introducing Tenoch Huerta as Namor, king of a hidden undersea nation, the film also stars Dominque Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena and Alex Livanalli. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is exclusively in theaters now!

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