Is Marvel Getting Ava DuVernay To Direct Black Panther?

By Nick Tylwalk | May 13, 2015

While Marvel certainly hasn’t been shy about letting relatively untested directors helm its movies, the studio has also increasingly been linked to reports for some of the hottest names in the movie industry. That trend continues with a report from The Wrap citing sources that Marvel has been talking to Ava DuVernay about one of its Phase Three films, most likely Black Panther. Captain Marvel is also mentioned as a possibility.

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The 42-year-old DuVernay first put herself on the map by winning the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award for Middle of Nowhere, but her profile took an even bigger step forward with her work on the historical drama Selma. That film got DuVernay a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director, while the movie itself was nominated for Best Picture and won Best Original Song at the Academy Awards a few months ago.

DuVernay has the upcoming TV drama Queen Sugar on her plate but so far hasn’t been attached to any more feature-length films. That could make her available for either Black Panther or Captain Marvel, with The Wrap mentioning that Marvel would like to have an African-American director on the former and a woman helming the latter.

It’s a big jump from civil rights dramas to the fantastical world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but even the rumor of Marvel considering DuVernay shows that the company isn’t bound by what genres directors have focused on before when considering candidates. Black Panther, which will star Chadwick Boseman in the title role after he makes his debut playing the character in next year’s Captain America: Civil War, is scheduled to release on July 6, 2018.

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