Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’ Movie Confirmed by Stan Lee

Marvel Studios may be one of the biggest Hollywood successes of the past decade, but they tend to play things close to the vest, only releasing information about their upcoming projects when they feel the time is right. Recently, the studio announced three mystery projects scheduled for release between 2016 and 2017. However, thanks to Marvel mascot Stan Lee, the identity of one of those films may have been revealed. Are you ready to meet 'Black Panther'?

The scoop comes from the Wizard World Comic-Con in New York City (via Screen Rant), where Lee spoke about Marvel's upcoming cinematic slate. Amidst the information everyone already knows, the creator of much of the Marvel universe threw out Black Panther's name, confirming the long-standing talk about the hero getting his own movie:

The people at Marvel are spending hours trying to think "What’ll we do next?" And there’s a damn good chance that they will think just what you mentioned because it would be a great idea, and little by little, everything you want to see will come along because they’re just like you. They’re fans of the stories and are trying to think, "What will the fans like to see next? What would we like to see next?"

So they’re working on 'Ant-Man,' working on 'Doctor Strange'; they’re working on 'Guardians of the Galaxy'; they’re working on God knows what. Did I say the 'Black Panther' also? They’re the ones I know about."

For those who don't know, Black Panther is the leader of the fictional African nation of Wakanda whose duties as a politician include wearing a badass costume and kicking lots of bad guys in the face as a superhero and member of the Avengers. He was one of Marvel's first black superheroes, and is a pretty great and culturally significant character all around. In other words, he deserves a movie.

Of the three untitled Marvel projects, we're guessing one of them is most likely the much-discussed 'Doctor Strange' movie, but what about the other two? Is one of them 'Black Panther'? Lee's other shout-outs ('Ant-Man' and 'Guardians of the Galaxy') are already set for release in 2014, which makes us believe 'Strange' and 'Panther' could be the next ones to come. Right now, though, all we have are a couple of release dates (May 6, 2016, July 8, 2016 and May 5, 2017), and we're expected to hear some updates at this year's Comic-Con.

What do you think? Do you think one of those release dates could be home to a 'Black Panther' movie? And what do you want the third movie to be?