It’s official: Ryan Coogler is directing the ‘Black Panther’ movie

After months of speculation, the film adaptation of Marvel’s Black Panther has a director: Ryan Coogler.

As reported by Polygon, Coogler, whose resume includes the critical hits Fruitvale Station and Creed, was tapped by Marvel to helm the franchise. Previously, Chadwick Boseman had been announced in the leading role, and even made a (brief) appearance in the recent Captain America: Civil War trailer. While the film doesn’t come out until 2018 (talk about a long publicity lead), Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed the company’s ambitions for the film in an upcoming issue of Empire:

Coogler makes for a perfect pick for the film. Both Fruitvale Station and Creed are, at their hearts, beautiful character studies that benefit from both Coogler’s careful storytelling and his ability to craft perfect scenes. In addition, both films are diverse in organic ways, and Feige’s confirmed that the Black Panther cast will be almost all black.

Though this is Coogler’s first foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we’re certain that he’s going to knock this out of the park. And, we wouldn’t be surprised if we later found out that his long-time acting collaborator Michael B. Jordan is also in talks for a role in the film. Can 2018 just hurry up and get here already?

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Images courtesy of Marvel and via Shutterstock.