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Wakanda Forever is about to get an upgrade or at least a full fledged series on Disney+. Ryan Coogler, the co-writer and director for Marvel’s Black Panther, has just signed a five year deal with Disney+ to develop and produce a series focusing on the kingdom of Wakanda. Even with the Black Panther sequel scheduled to start filming in July, Coogler and his partners, wife Zinzi and filmmaker Sev Ohanian (not related to Alexis, I checked), are finding the time to bring the magic of Wakanda to our screens. With the Disney+ deal, Coogler will be launching his production company, Proximity’s, television division. Bob Iger said that he believes in Coogler’s vision as he is a “singular storyteller” with “vision and range.” Ryan Coogler said he is excited as he is an avid consumer of television. Below is more on the story from Deadline:
“Ryan Coogler is a singular storyteller whose vision and range have made him one of the standout filmmakers of his generation,” said Bob Iger, Executive Chairman, The Walt Disney Company. “With Black Panther, Ryan brought a groundbreaking story and iconic characters to life in a real, meaningful and memorable way, creating a watershed cultural moment. We’re thrilled to strengthen our relationship and look forward to telling more great stories with Ryan and his team.”
Said Coogler: “It’s an honor to be partnering with The Walt Disney Company. Working with them on Black Panther was a dream come true. As avid consumers of television, we couldn’t be happier to be launching our television business with Bob Iger, Dana Walden and all the amazing studios under the Disney umbrella. We look forward to learning, growing, and building a relationship with audiences all over the world through the Disney platforms. We are especially excited that we will be taking our first leap with Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso and their partners at Marvel Studios where we will be working closely with them on select MCU shows for Disney+. We’re already in the mix on some projects that we can’t wait to share,” stated Ryan Coogler on behalf of Proximity Media.”
Coogler founded the multi-media company Proximity with Zinzi Coogler, Ohanian, Göransson, Davis and Nicks with a mission to create event-driven feature films, television, soundtracks and podcasts that look to bring audiences closer together through stories involving often-overlooked subject matters. Proximity intends to generate a wide variety of projects across all budget levels.
When I saw this news I got so excited. I cannot wait to see how Ryan and Disney will be expanding upon the Wakandaverse. Obviously Black Panther was one of my favorite movies of 2018 (I saw it six times in the theatre). I am hoping that they will introduce Storm to the TV series. However, I am not sure how that will work out since we no longer have Chadwick to play T’Challa (Storm marries T’Challa for a brief period in the comics). There is definitely enough source material out there for Ryan and Kevin Feige to pull upon.
It is also exciting for me to see that Disney+ is deciding to invest in Black creators. Yes, I know Black Panther was one of their biggest hit ever, but they could do like many other studios have. A five year deal is a huge deal and I do believe that Ryan and his team will be up to the challenge. I believe Ryan is extremely gifted in production and direction. Fruitvale Station is a still a movie that resonates strongly for me and that was his first film. I also hope that they bring in costume designer Ruth E Carter because what she created for Black Panther visually was nothing short of spectacular.
I cannot wait for Black Panther 2 and I look forward to the Wakanda series. The only thing that makes this news bittersweet is that Chadwick is not here to be a part of the world he so lovingly helped create.
Photos credit: Getty and Avalon.red
Not sure if they can easily add Storm, for the same reason that getting Spiderman into the Avengers was such a hassle.
It would be nice if she showed up, though, even if there is no romantic aspect to it.
Hope to see more female Avengers from the comics in the movies, as there are loads of interesting characters that haven’t been in the movies yet.
Starting with just one woman like in the first movie, is very 1960s comics to me.
From the 1970s, they tended to have more than one woman on comics like Avengers, X-Men etc.
I sometimes buy Marvel comics with female leads, to be supportive and enjoy good stories.
Marvel tried very hard with a diverse range of comics (poc, women and lots of them as title characters) a few years ago, but unfortunately some just had very low sales.
Disney has the rights to the xmen since they bought Fox though so no hassle there. Spiderman is still owned by Sony.
Thanks, Lauren! That’s great. I remember reading someone saying it might be hard to get the Xmen in because of that recently, but it might actually have been a while ago. Corona getting me to lose track of time
When this show is released, I will get Disney +.
Yeah, was just going to say this. Disney is expected to add the X-men to the MCU at some point in the future due to the Fox acquisition, it’s just a question of when/how.
As Lauren stated, Disney own Fox now so they have full rights to the characters in the X-Men and Fantastic 4 universes. The only characters Marvel Studios don’t have full control over anymore are the Spider-Man characters (although Sony have a deal with Disney that Spider-Man can be used in their movies) and Hulk (Hulk can be used as a character in Disney movies but The Incredible Hulk film can only be distributed by Universal Pictures).
Hopefully, the more diverse movies and TV shows coming up in the Marvel universe will translate to comics sales.
I just might have to get Disney +.
RIGHT ???!!!!
I’ve been telling myself I will not cave to the Disney machine, but damnit, they are making it real hard.
I have been staying as far from it as possible. I already have two monthly subscriptions and really didn’t want to add a third one, but they are making it so difficult.
Our free Disney+ ends this month unless we start paying (between us we’ve managed to have it since last April) and I have enjoyed it – I’ve watched all Marvel chronologically including the two I’d missed and need to squeeze in the Star Wars origin movies before it runs out, plus I’ve seen some of the cartoons that passed me by previously (highly recommend The Emperors New Groove). My plan is to take a break for a while then start paying once there is a bunch of new stuff on there, this news has made that a definite.
Oh and Soul is epic.
Plus it’s fun seeing what random films you can find – turns out we both still enjoy National Treasure.
I’m trying to save up the free month until they add more of the new marvel series. I bought all the marvel movies from iTunes, but for the series I’ll just have to suck it up to Disney.
I am very excited about this! Black Panther is one of the few comic book movies that I loved and will watch again.
Disney Plus is making some interesting moves IMO to keep the new subscribers coming (I subscribed bc I have small kids so the disney vault is invaluable to me, but you need more than just parents to subscribe) and it seems to be really working.
So excited to hear this. Hope Ryan plans on expanding the world of Wakanda. There are so many stories to tell just about how the society is run and people live. They could even explore the history of the previous Black Panthers. Can’t wait.
Yes, can’t wait for the series to come out! I’m a little sad that this means we won’t get another blockbuster movie in the Black Panther franchise, but I can see why they made this choice. It would just be too difficult to retool the movie franchise and write off Chadwick/T’Challa.
Anyway, I hope they bring back Danai Gurira. I want to see her kick ass in her beautiful Dora Milaje armor.
They’re still doing a movie. My guess is this will feature some of the other characters from Wakanda. It has the potential to take those characters to later tie them into other parts of the MCU, which is exciting.
I may have made a high squeaky sound of excitement when I read about this. I’m glad that Disney is showing some sense and letting Marvel do it’s job and that Marvel is retaining the Ryan Coogler – Black Panther remains one of my favorite entries in the MCU.
Ryan Coogler is so freaking handsome.
I just wanted to share that.