Martin Freeman Confirms He's Back In 'Black Panther 2'

Marvel has no shortage of charming guys in suits, and Martin Freeman's CIA agent Everett K. Ross was one of those, popping up in Captain America: Civil War before becoming an unexpected part of the Black Panther ensemble. So it was easy to expect that he would return for Black Panther 2 — a return that Freeman himself previously confirmed.

But then Chadwick Boseman's death dealt a blow to both the world and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. How would Black Panther 2 move on without Boseman? Would the film be the same as the one that director Ryan Coogler had been planning for the past few years? As far as we know, it will at least have the same cast, and can count on one more returning cast member in Freeman, who once again confirmed his commitment to the sequel.

In an interview with Collider, Freeman confirmed that he will be reprising his character of Everett K. Ross in Black Panther 2:

"Yeah, I am doing the second Black Panther. I'm going to be speaking to Ryan Coogler soon about what shape that's going to look like. I have no idea about the script [so] I don't know what's going to happen. Just before Chadwick died, if my memory serves correctly, the script had gone in. They had the script and they were working on the script, and then Chadwick died, and [I] sort of immediately thought, 'Oh, okay, I could see a world where there's no Black Panther then, because how can you do a Black Panther without Black Panther?' So, I still don't know what that's going to look like. And no, obviously, before Chad died, the idea of doing it without him would have been a stupid idea. It would have been crazy. It was very shocking, and still is very, very strange, that he is not here. So, I'm as curious as you are to see what that will look like and I find out quite soon. All I know is that I'm in it."

Freeman doesn't give us much more of an idea of how Black Panther 2 will move on without its star, but it appears that Coogler had finished a script before Boseman's tragic death that is being completely rewritten. The writer-director and Marvel's Kevin Feige has already gone on record saying that Boseman's role of T'Challa will not be recast. However, we do know that  Narcos: Mexico star Tenoch Huerta has reportedly been cast as a villain in the sequel. We'll have to wait until next year to find out in what direction Black Panther 2 goes, and what Everett K. Ross has been up to since fighting alongside the Wakandans.

Black Panther 2 is slated to hit theaters on July 8, 2022.