The follow-up to Ryan Coogler’s Academy Award-winning Black Panther still lies just beyond the horizon of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s fourth phase, and while rumors abound concerning who will be returning – both to the screen and potentially, the Internet would have us believe, from the dead – one of the film’s principal players remains uncertain about his role in the Wakandan saga.
Speaking at the TCA Winter Press Tour in promotion of his upcoming FX comedy Breeders, Martin Freeman admitted to journalists that while he’s “very intrigued as to what [his] character is going to be doing” in Black Panther 2, he has “literally no idea at all” what exploits Marvel Studios has in store for him.
The character in question is, of course, Everett Ross, who was first introduced on paper in issue #17 of the third volume of Ka-Zar in September of 1998, and made his big screen debut in the 2016 film Captain America: Civil War as a CIA agent and commander of the Joint Counter Terrorism Centre tasked with the capture of the international assassin and terrorist known as the Winter Soldier.
“I don’t know who does have an idea” what the next phase of Ross’s life and career will hold,” Freeman went on to say. “Presumably someone at Marvel and Ryan know, but I don’t.”
Even if he doesn’t know what part he’ll play in T’Challa’s continuing adventures, Freeman does know that he’ll be involved in some capacity. At least, that’s according to what he told Den of Geek nearly two years ago, when he claimed that Marvel “introduced me in Civil War and said there would be a couple of other films, one of which was Black Panther.”
Theories had swirled for a time that one of those “other films” might be Captain Marvel given the revelation of Ross’ service as an Air Force captain, and while no cameo ever materialized, it remains a possibility that such an appearance could occur in flashbacks within future Captain Marvel sequels. After all, Freeman reiterated his involvement in the Marvel Cinematic Universe last August, when he told Digital Spy: “as far as I know, I will be in another Black Panther. That’s my understanding.”
Black Panther 2 is set to premiere on May 6th, 2022, the second of four MCU movies scheduled for release that year, and as soon as we learn more about Freeman’s involvement in it, we’ll be sure to let you know.
