BLACK PANTHER will finally give T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) his first solo movie, and with his film brings a whole new assortment of characters to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Though T’Challa is the main player, each supporting character will need time to shine and have their story told, and if the reported runtime for the movie is to be believed, there will be plenty of time to go around.
According to website Event Cinemas, the current runtime for PANTHER clocks in at 135 minutes, or 2 hours and 15 minutes. If true, this would make among the longest of the MCU solo films, coming in ahead of some of the earlier films, which were around the 120-minute mark (DOCTOR STRANGE, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, THOR, etc.)
The longer MCU films are often the team movies, like AVENGERS or CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (which is technically a solo movie), with the latter running at about 2 and a half hours. It is worth noting that other solo movies last year, like SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING and THOR: RAGNAROK come close to PANTHER’s time, clocking in at 133 minutes and 130 minutes respectively.
As these movies begin to expand their universe they’ll be featuring more characters, so we should expect to see these runtimes get longer and longer into Martin Scorsese territory. This movie will tell the story of T’Challa coming into the throne as king of Wakanda, having to fight off the dual evil efforts of Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) and Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan). He will do so with the help of his trusty companions, like Okoye, Nakia and his sister Shuri (Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyong'o and Letitia Wright). That’s a lot of people that need their screen time.
Now, the movie could screen for critics come the end of the month or very early February, but that still leaves a little time for cutting and such. But this is very well the actual runtime of the movie and considering that it’s a very suitable length for the flick. There’s a lot to introduce in the movie, with so many new characters and the entire nation of Wakanda to delve into and establish. At 135 minutes it's not too long or too short, so we can expect everyone to get the time to kick ass and fly cool ships and stuff.
BLACK PANTHER hits theaters February 16.