Letitia Wright Reveals The Terrible Truth About Black Panther 3
Letitia Wright says there is no progress on developing Black Panther 3.
According to Letitia Wright, there has been no movement on making Black Panther 3. The Wakanda Forever star told Inverse recently that, while she is enthusiastic about returning to the role of Princess Shuri, who has now inherited the Black Panther mantle, she has been taking a much-needed respite since making the epic second film in the series. The film was a huge project and, she says, “a big journey” from which she needed time and space for a while.
Fans are eager for Letitia Wright to return in Black Panther 3, of course, and so is she, but at present, she is promoting her new film, Surrounded, about a former Civil War soldier who travels west disguised as a man to make a claim on a gold mine. The film is directed by Anthony Mandler and is his second feature after 2018’s Monster, a legal drama that premiered at Sundance and was later picked up by Netflix. But of course, even as Wright promotes Surrounded, which debuts on June 30, people are anxious to know more about her famous comic book role.
Understandably, even during her break, Black Panther 3 has been on Letitia Wright’s mind—and she has ideas about where the character might go from here. Following the Secret Wars saga, anti-racist scholar and author Ta-Nehisi Coates was brought in by Marvel to write the Black Panther comics. In those comics, Shuri’s self-sacrifice results in her preservation in a “living death,” with her soul taken to another plane while her brother and others work to restore her to life.
Letitia Wright wonders if Black Panther 3 or later films might include elements of this journey, from which the comic book princess emerged with incredible knowledge and amazing new abilities. The actor is intrigued by her character entering a new form and taking on a kind of immortality. Whether those story elements will make it into the next film or to any possible sequels remains to be seen, especially in the midst of the WGA strike.
Of course, even after the strike is concluded, Black Panther 3 won’t move forward without Letitia Wright, leaving us to wonder whether the star will find herself with any influence over the story. That eventuality seems doubtful at a studio the size of Marvel, where films are sometimes essentially rewritten by studio execs via visual effects artists. It’s hard to say how things might shake out for the much-anticipated sequel, but the results will hopefully be as exciting as its star hopes.
While we and Letitia Wright imagine what might be for Black Panther 3, there is hope that Marvel’s recent slump will either end or find another pocket of magic, as it did with Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Like Guardians, while it is connected to the rest of the MCU, Wakanda Forever has its own distinctive feel and style, and it will continue to be in the hands of Ryan Coogler, who wrote and directed the previous two films. Whatever comes next, for her part, it sounds like Letitia Wright will be ready.
