Ryan Coogler is officially returning to Wakanda. During a panel for Sinners at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles event, the filmmaker revealed that the third Black Panther movie is now his primary focus.

Coogler, who had been discussing Sinners and its vampire-hunting storyline set in the Mississippi Delta, was asked about his future plans by Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr. Initially joking that he would usually “neither confirm nor deny”, Coogler eventually acknowledged, “We’re working on it hard… Yeah, it’s the next movie.”

Hints about Black Panther 3 first circulated in late 2024 when Denzel Washington shared in an interview that Coogler was “writing a part for me.” Coogler has since confirmed Washington is indeed being considered for the project.

Days after Ryan Coogler confirmed that he was writing a screenplay for Black Panther 3 with Denzel Washington part of the cast, there were rumours about the additional actors in the film. Damson Idris was asked in a show about whether he was in talks with Marvel Studios over a role in the Coogler directorial. Idris neither confirmed the speculation nor dismissed it outright. He initially said that he is in contact with the studio but then implied that it could still "mean no". The actor, however, clarified that he would accept an offer for a role in the film from Marvel Studios.

The Black Panther franchise began in 2018 with Chadwick Boseman leading the MCU’s introduction to Wakanda. Boseman first debuted as T’Challa in Captain America: Civil War (2016) and went on to appear in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Following Boseman’s death in 2020, Marvel chose not to recast T’Challa. The 2022 sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, honoured his legacy and followed Shuri, played by Letitia Wright, as she stepped into the mantle.