Before we get into this, we need to stress the fact that what you’re about to read is based on a rumor that is so baseless, it might as well be the subject of a fantasy novel about a baseless rumor who is destined to save the world from the forces of evil. It’s a rumor so baseless that not only would it be elected mayor of Rumorville, its father would also have been the mayor of Rumorville in a Chicago-esque mayoral dynasty. If you called up an elderly relative who lives in another country and asked them to come up with a rumor, we would have just as much reason to believe the veracity of that rumor as we do this rumor. This rumor’s favorite celebrity daughter is Rumer Willis. Got it?
With that out of the way, a website called MCU Exchange is reporting Selma’s Ava DuVernay has been hired to direct Marvel’s Black Panther movie. MCU Exchange is an unproven source, and it doesn’t say where it got this information, but this rumor isn’t entirely out of left field. Back in May, we reported Marvel was talking with DuVernay about directing either Black Panther or Captain Marvel, which lends this story a kernel of believability—and a kernel of easy-to-make-up-ability. So this could be real just as easily as it could be fake. This is fun, right?
Black Panther will star Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, the king of a high-tech African nation called Wakanda—and also the superhero known as Black Panther. If DuVernay really does direct it, she’ll be the first African-American woman—and woman, period—to direct a Marvel Comics Universe movie. (Cue fans of Lexi Alexander’s Punisher: War Zone forgetting that film isn’t MCU canon.) Also, it would just so happen to be the first MCU movie that doesn’t star a white guy. It’s easy to see why that would be a big deal, then, but it still doesn’t mean any of this is true. It could be, though!