If you love the Black Panther films, but have always wanted to spend more time exploring Wakanda, I’ve got some good news for you: Marvel Games has announced that it is partnering with Electronic Arts’ (EA) Cliffhanger Games to develop “an original, third-person, single-player Black Panther game.” The project plans “to build an expansive and reactive world that empowers players to experience what it is like to take on the mantle of Wakanda’s protector.”
“We’re dedicated to delivering fans a definitive and authentic Black Panther experience, giving them more agency and control over their narrative than they have ever experienced in a story-driven video game,” Cliffhanger boss Kevin Stephens said. “Wakanda is a rich superhero sandbox, and our mission is to develop an epic world for players who love Black Panther and want to explore the world of Wakanda as much as we do.”
The news had fans wondering if they’re going to get something similar to 2020’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which was praised by gamers and critics, became very successful for Marvel and helped raise the profile of the character. Marvel Studios has not officially announced plans for a Black Panther 3, so we don’t know when the MCU will return to Wakanda. It’s important to note that unless it’s specifically advertised, the film studio’s creative team and the video game developers rarely collaborate. This means a new Black Panther game would likely have no connection to the films.
Despite the fact that we have exactly zero details on any storylines or characters and that video games have a notoriously long development schedule, the internet still ramped up the speculation machine about what we could see in this new game.
One fan wondered about T’Challa’s presence in the game, tweeting, “I’m looking forward to this game, BUT it is rumored that T’Challa is dead & player becomes the #BlackPanther. I don’t like that Chadwick Boseman worked too hard for people just to push the character aside. I hope @EA understands T’Challa’s significance.”
Another user commented on the rumors of T’Challa being killed in the game, writing, “Well just giving you a heads up. If T’Challa is killed and it’s a ‘build your player game’ it will flop and all the time y’all are putting in will go to waste. Black Panther fans want a T’Challa game, we’re tired of him being killed and sidelined.”
Most fans just want a chance to honor T’Challa, with one person tweeting, “Hopefully we will be able to play as T’Challa - the Black Panther and not a custom character. Otherwise, I’ll have no hype.”
Here’s the thing: This is one of those self-fulfilling internet prophecies. Someone somewhere dropped a guess that T’Challa would be killed, so that the player could take over as Black Panther and everyone ran with it. In Marvel’s announcement, Stephens uses the vague description, “We want our game to enable players to feel what it’s like to be worthy of the Black Panther mantle in unique, story-driven ways.” But there is no official synopsis that includes T’Challa’s death. In fact, there’s no official synopsis of any kind, because Marvel and Cliffhanger are still putting together the team that will work on the game.
This game is at least two to three years away. Everyone calm down and be patient.