(From L) Actors Lupita Nyong'o, Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira, Florence Kasumba and Winston Duke present "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" at the Marvel panel in Hall H of the convention center during Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, July 23, 2022. Chris Delmas / AFP
Comic-Con fans who attended the San Diego Comin-Con 2022 got a special surprise when The Marvel presentation capped off the biggest day at Comic-Con by giving attendees the first glimpse at the first trailer for Black Panther 2 – Wakanda Forever.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the sequel to the first comic book film to win a best picture Oscar nomination, set to premiere November 11.
Returning director Ryan Coogler, taking to the San Diego stage with a colorful troupe of African drummers and dancers, paid an emotional tribute to the first film’s star, the “late, great Chadwick Boseman.”
Boseman died from cancer in 2020, and his role is not being taken over by another actor in the new film.
ALSO SEE: Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman has died
“I promise you, I can feel his hand on me right now,” said Coogler.
“Chad is no longer with us physically, but his spirit, his passion, his genius, his pride in his culture, and the impact he made on this industry will be felt forever.”
Coogler then presented new characters in the franchise being played by Michaela Coel and Tenoch Huerta.
Coel, who won an Emmy for I May Destroy You, praised the unique “energy” of the first Black Panther film, which was widely seen as a breakthrough for Black representation in mainstream Hollywood movies.
“I think it’s got something to do with a Black superhero, padded out a clan of Black superheroes and what that kind of does for Black people,” she said.
Disney announced a slew of Marvel superhero movies including two new Avengers films Saturday at Comic-Con, as it offered screaming fans an emotional first glimpse at its upcoming Black Panther sequel.
The record-breaking Marvel movies have dominated Hollywood and global box offices in recent years, with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame briefly becoming the highest-grossing film of all time at more than $2.79 billion.
ALSO SEE: ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ – to have loved and lost and loved again
“I wonder if you guys wouldn’t mind looking ahead a little bit?” studio president Kevin Feige asked the wildly cheering hall of die-hard superhero fans toward the end of a raucous hour-plus presentation at a San Diego convention center.
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars will hit theatres in 2025, he then announced.
The films will aim to follow in the footsteps of Avengers: Endgame, which built unprecedented hype by rounding off storylines presented in all the preceding Marvel films.
The two new “Avengers” titles will conclude the next “saga” of more than a dozen inter-connected films and television shows in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe,” said Feige.
“That will complete the second saga of the MCU, which of course is ‘The Multiverse Saga,'” he said.
The Marvel franchise in recent films and shows has explored the “multiverse” concept popularised by superhero comic books, in which infinite universes – and infinite versions of each hero and villain – exist in parallel realities.
Other Marvel films announced Saturday by Disney at the world’s most famous pop culture gathering included Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four, both due in 2024.
Feige also set out dates for Blade – in theatres November 2023 – and the newly titled Captain America: New World Order coming May 2024.
Bill Murray and Olivia Colman join the ranks of Hollywood A-listers flocking to the Marvel franchise, appearing in first-look footage from movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Disney+ series Secret Invasion respectively.
Chris Pratt, Paul Rudd, and Lupita Nyong’o also appeared on stage Saturday along with Jonathan Majors, whose Kang the Conqueror character appears poised to become a major new supervillain for the franchise.
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