Michaela Coel has been added to the cast of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Time to speculate who the I May Destroy You star is playing
Marvel Studios is still keeping a tight lid on details about its Black Panther sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but we now know another major star will be joining the cast. Variety reported this afternoon that Michaela Coel will appear in the film. Coel reportedly joined director Ryan Coogler at Atlanta’s Pinewood Studios recently, but as always with the MCU, we have no information on who she’ll play.
Coel makes a great addition to the cast, as she’s become an actor and showrunner to look out for. Her Emmy-nominated series I May Destroy You—which Coel created, wrote, directed, produced, and starred in—became one of the most talked-about TV shows of 2020. She also met success with her previous series Chewing Gum, which she also created and starred in, and which gained an international fanbase after it was acquired by Netflix. Between those series, Coel starred in Tinge Krishnan’s adaptation of the musical Been So Long, and portrayed a member of the Resistance in Star Wars: Episode VIII—The Last Jedi.
As for the rest of the Wakanda Forever cast, though they haven’t been confirmed, Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright, and Angela Bassett are expected to return for the sequel. After Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman died of colon cancer in 2020, the film’s executive producer Victoria Alonso denied rumors that he’d be digitized in Wakanda Forever, saying that since “our king has died in real life,” Marvel will be “taking a little time to see how we continue the story.” Boseman will be heard as the voice of T’Challa in Disney+’s upcoming animated MCU series, What If…?
As for who Coel might be playing in Wakanda Forever, we can only speculate. But it is worth pointing out that the weather-controlling mutant Storm had a relationship with Black Panther in the comics—maybe Coel can help bring the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe?