In June, reports started to bubble up indicating that Ava DuVernay had officially signed on to direct Marvel's Black Panther — an interesting move from the Selma director and one that inspired great waves of hype surrounding the project. However, DuVernay has now confirmed that she will not be helming the film — though reports of preliminary Marvel meetings were accurate.
"I'm not signing on to direct Black Panther,” DuVernay told Essence on Friday. “I think I’ll just say we had different ideas about what the story would be. Marvel has a certain way of doing things and I think they’re fantastic and a lot of people love what they do. I loved that they reached out to me.” DuVernay added that, in the end, her qualms with Marvel were a matter of "story and perspective."
Though Black Panther was originally expected in 2017, the film is now slated for July 6, 2018 — though whoever ends up occupying the director's chair is expected to also be involved on the set of Captain America: Civil War, slated for 2016.
