Rumour has it Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler is being eyed to helm both Black Panther 3 and Marvel Studios' eventual X-Men reboot.
It's an exciting prospect given what a talent the filmmaker is, but one The DisInsider may have thrown cold water on. According to the site, Coogler is on a shortlist to helm both Avengers 5 and Avengers: Secret Wars.
While the post's author believes he'd likely direct only one of them, they also suggest the director could pass the reigns of Black Panther 3 to someone else to focus on Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Still, we'd bet on Marvel Studios wanting a single filmmaker for the next Avengers movies as, like Infinity War and Endgame, they could then be shot back-to-back (surely a necessity when they're being released only one year apart).
We'll see what happens, but Coogler directing Avengers 5 or Avengers: Secret Wars surely makes more sense than X-Men when the reboot doesn't even have a writer at this early stage.
Elsewhere in the report, it's said Mads Mikkelsen is a "no-go" to play Doctor Doom in The Fantastic Four.
In other MCU news, scooper @MyTimeToShineH is claiming Marvel Studios has seriously considered scrapping its long-delayed Armor Wars movie. It started life as a Disney+ TV series, only to become a feature when they presumably figured out how ridiculously expensive the show would be.
As of now, Yassir Lester is penning Armor Wars' screenplay, with Don Cheadle confirmed to star as War Machine after we learned in Secret Invasion that he's seemingly been held captive by the Skrulls since Captain America: Civil War. Dominique Thorne is also expected to return as Riri Williams after starring in Ironheart, a series which wrapped production in 2022 but still has no release date.
Armor Wars is a cool idea, but is it necessary? That may be what Disney is weighing up after recent comments from the House of Mouse's CEO, Bob Iger.
"We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three," he said of plans for Marvel.
"[The MCU has] a couple of good films in [2025] and then we’re heading to more Avengers, which we’re extremely excited about. Overall, I feel great about the slate. It’s something that I’ve committed to spending more and more time on. The team is one that I have tremendous confidence in and the IP that we’re mining, including all the sequels that we’re doing, is second to none."
However, he'd described Marvel Studios' TV shows as "a vestige of basically a desire in the past to increase volume."
Stay tuned for updates.