As per Giant Bomb's most recent Game Mess Mornings show, well-known industry insider Jeff Grubb reported that EA is in the early stages of development for a big budget open-world Black Panther game. He went on to say that the game is in the earliest stages of development and that is most likely being led by a new EA studio being lead by Kevin Stephens, who was the studio head of Monolith Productions when they developed the Middle-earth games, Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War.
Grubb affirms that the game will be single-player and that the story will be based upon the main character's challenges of becoming the new Black Panther, since it will start with the prior hero already being dead. This was the alleged set-up for the game, which EA is supposedly trying to make a "big open-world Black Panther game."
He states that the information he heard came from the game's pitch, so on top of the fact that this is a leak, it should also be taken with a grain of salt, as many things can naturally change for a game from the moment of inception to the moment of release.
Wakanda, as per Black Panther (film) (2018)
Kevin Stephens joined EA back in May 2021, which further lends credence to the notion that if this game is in development at all, it's still in very early stages. It also aligns with prior reporting, at gamesindustry.biz, that Stephen's then-new studio would be working to "create an open-world action-adventure game." Both Middle-earth games were very well-received critically and commercially, so there is reason to be optimistic.
Some fans of Marvel's stories will rejoice in learning that such a popular IP will be given the single-player format. The 2019 title Marvel's Avengers received some backlash when it was initially announced that the title would have a heavy focus on its live-service components. Then it was revealed that Square Enix lost a significant amount of money with said title, along with Guardians of The Galaxy. Even though GOTG was a single-player title, many other factors could have led to that particular title's soft launch, such as marketing and release timing.
Making single-player experiences for brands of which fans love the stories is smart, but some gamers claim they've already caught the so-called Marvel Fatigue. Marvel games are becoming more and more commonplace as the brand keeps growing, with the two previously mentioned Square Enix games in the past few years, as well as upcoming titles like Marvel's Midnight Suns, Spider-Man 2, and Wolverine.