How long is Black Panther going to be, and what does it mean for the film?

Black Panther has the potential to be quite the hefty movie for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Will that matter in the grand scheme of things?

We have officially made it to the year of Black Panther, and Marvel has decided to grace us with this movie (which looks, as we’ve said before, amazing) just two days after Valentine’s Day this year, which seems like a great late gift to us. What also seems like a great gift is that the movie is reportedly going to run for just over 2 hours — 2 hours, 15 minutes to be exact, if CBR’s source of EventCinemas.com is to be believed.

Coming hot on the heels of another rather long blockbuster film that had fans hyped ahead of its release, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it’s interesting that it seems blockbusters are more willing to break the two-hour mark. We don’t think that going full-blown Lord of the Rings or Titanic in terms of film length will ever be quite as in vogue as it once was — to say nothing of the infamous Extended Editions of the former — but Disney, which owns both Marvel and Lucasfilm, seems to be betting that its fans will sit in theater seats for longer than the trends would indicate.

(All you really need to do is search “Black Panther four hours” on Twitter and you’ll see what we mean.)

So, does that mean that Avengers: Infinity War will also benefit from the possibility of more time to expand its story? What about other, as-yet unknown Marvel stories? What about the practically-inevitable Black Panther 2? (Hey, Ant-Man has a sequel.)

Granted, that could also be a double-edged sword. If Black Panther‘s paced too poorly or earns criticism because of its length, viewers may get bored, or studios might restrict run times to below two hours to maximize profits, which would also be less than fun when it comes to directorial freedom.

All this also comes as directors like James Gunn have talked about what it’s like to direct these huge films.

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But hey, Black Panther — no pressure.