Ryan Coogler, the director of the American superhero film Black Panther starring late actor Chadwick Boseman, has struck a five-year exclusive television deal with the Walt Disney Company, Marvel Entertainment announced on Monday.
The deal will see Coogler develop new television series, including one based on the Kingdom of Wakanda for streaming platform Disney+.
Proximity Media, the company that Coogler runs, will also develop television series for other divisions of the company.
“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, in statement. “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.”
Coogler is currently working on the sequel of Black Panther which is slated for a July 2022 release. According to Marvel’s earlier statement, Black Panther 2 will continue to honour the legacy of Boseman and his portrayal of King T’Challa, and will not recast the character. Rather, the sequel will continue “to explore the incomparable world of Wakanda and all of the rich and varied characters introduced in the first film”.
Black Panther is one of the biggest Marvel films with a box-office collection of $1.34 billion worldwide. It also earned a nomination at the Academy Awards. It released on January 29, 2018 and co-stars Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, among others.
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“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,” Coogler said in a statement.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has a streak of web series lined up for release on the OTT platform Disney+. It began with WandaVision, which premiered on January 15. The others include Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki, which are expected to release later this year.