Next week, the King of Wakanda will be making his long awaited solo debut in Black Panther. But recent interviews with the film’s director, Ryan Coogler, have revealed that two other characters nearly made their live action debut in the film.
Whilst on the press junket for the upcoming film, Coogler revealed that he initially planned for longtime Spider-Man foe, Kraven the Hunter to make an appearance. Unfortunately his plans were rejected, most likely due to other plans in line for the character, either through the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel or one of Sony Pictures future plans.
He told the interviewer:
“Being a Marvel fan, you want to grab all the characters, You realise there’s contractual things. You don’t have that character. There was a Christopher Priest run that was pretty heavy, there’s a big scene where Panther’s fighting Kraven, Kraven the Hunter.”
He then went on to add:
“I’ve always loved Kraven the Hunter in almost every iteration. So there was a moment – ‘Can I grab Kraven?’ – and they were ‘Nah, you don’t have Kraven.’ He was one where I thought ‘Oh, man.’ But I don’t even know if he would have worked in the movie we ended up with, this was the early days.”
It’s really great to see that Coogler is such a fan of the comics with plenty of ideas that he could utilize in a future sequel. He definitely has an interest in bringing characters to the screen as he has already revealed that Young Avenger, Eli Bradley aka Patriot very nearly made an appearance. He explained:
“Crazy enough, for comic book fans, we toyed with the character Patriot for a little bit,” Coogler said. “Early on we were interested to get our hands on him, Joe [Robert Cole] and I, but that ended up going away so we could focus on Wakanda a little more.”
It definitely sounds as though Coogler has plenty of ambitions should he be given the chance at a sequel, and with the film looking to be both a critical and financial success, Marvel would be crazy not to bring him back. You can check out Black Panther when it hits theaters February 16th.
What do you think? Would you like to have seen these characters in Black Panther? Do you want to see a Coogler helmed sequel? Let us know below!