Credit: Marvel StudiosBlack Panther has become a foundational Marvel hero in the last seven years. The legendary Stan Lee/Jack Kirby creation has been around since 1966, but the character did not receive his long overdue worldwide fame until his debut in Captain America: Civil War (2016). This appearance transitioned to a solo film, Black Panther (2018), which went on to gross $1.3 billion and catapulted the hero and the Wakanda mythology permanently into the cultural zeitgeist. Wakanda will continue to live forever as Marvel Games, in collaboration with Cliffhanger Games, has now announced that they have begun development on a Black Panther video game.
It will be an original, third-person, single-player, open-world game. It will be helmed by Kevin Stephens, who was directly involved in the innovative and critically-acclaimed Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor game. He has an assembled a team of veterans that have worked on Halo: Infinite, God of War and Call of Duty.
Stephens expressed that Cliffhanger Games is committed to providing fans with the ultimate and true Black Panther experience. Players will have full agency and control over their narrative, unlike other story-driven video games. He continued to state that the setting of Wakanda will be an immersive sandbox-style that will create an epic world for Black Panther fans. Players will be able to feel what it is like to be worthy of the mantle of the protector of Wakanda.
Their partnership with Marvel Games is to ensure that his team crafts every element of Wakanda with detailed authenticity. The technology, the heroes and the story will all be original, but will stay true to the iconic source material. Stephens was excited to divulge that being able to build a new team centered around values of diversity, collaboration and empowerment is rare. There has been no other updates on a future release date, but EA Games and Marvel previously disclosed that they secured a deal to develop three more titles as part of their partnership.
Are you excited for this solo Black Panther? Who do you think should voice the Marvel hero?