Martin Freeman Says Parts of ‘Black Panther 2’ Are ‘Very Odd’
Martin Freeman says when Chadwick Boseman passed away last year after a long, private battle with cancer, he assumed that Black Panther II was simply not going to happen. A short time after Boseman’s death, Marvel reached out and let Freeman —who plays CIA agent Everett Ross in the series — know that the plan for the sequel had changed, but the movie would still happen.
The film, which we now know is called Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is due in theaters in a little over a year and getting close to the start of production. In an interview with The Late Late Show’s James Corden, Freeman offered an update on the progress, saying he recently spoke with writer/director Ryan Coogler over Zoom, and he laid out the whole film for him. Some of it, Freeman said, was “very odd”:
He took me through the film, but incorporating my character's beats. Some of it was really, like, very odd. And I think he could see by the reaction on my face, some of the things he was saying — my face must have been going [shocked face]. He kept sort of saying, ‘Stay with me, but this is going to work.’
Odd doesn’t mean bad, though. Freeman finished that part of the interview by saying “People are going to be in for a treat.” It just might be an odd treat.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is scheduled to open in theaters on July 8, 2022. Marvel has already announced Boseman’s role as King T’Challa will not be recast, but they have yet to announce who will be the film’s new Black Panther. You can watch Martin Freeman’s full Late Late Show interview below.