At this point, we can be honest. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a bad movie.

Oh, it has its moments, particularly in the first half: the initial attack of the Talokans on the American ship, T’Challa’s funeral, every single thing that Angela Bassett does as Queen Ramonda. But the movie suffers from too much fragmentation, particularly on Marvel’s end. Instead of exploring the characters that director Ryan Coogler and his co-writer Joe Robert Cole brought to life in the first movie, we spend so much time with Everett K. Ross, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, and Riri Williams–characters who all had significant parts in upcoming Marvel projects.

Wakanda Forever isn’t the first bad Marvel movie, nor is it the first disappointing sequel. And so some may be tempted to put the blame on Coogler, who had the unenviable task of following up the culture-defining first movie and dealing with the unexpected death of his star. But any doubts about Coogler’s abilities have been firmly and forever silenced by Sinners, a triumphant piece of blockbuster filmmaking and celebration of the power of art. With the announcement that Coogler will be returning to helm Black Panther 3, Sinners proves that Marvel boss Kevin Feige needs to step aside and let Coogler do whatever he wants for the third Black Panther movie.

Marvel, of course, hasn’t been very hands-off with its creatives. From the very beginning, the appeal of the MCU came from Feige approaching his job like a showrunner on a television series. He came up with the major plot beats, and often even pre-visualized action sequences before a director was even chosen. He frequently worked with established screenwriters such as Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to elaborate the plots he put together. Directors, then, could add their own personal style, but only to the extent that that they did not disrupt what Feige put in place.

While that approach did mean the MCU sometimes lost strong filmmakers, such as Edgar Wright on Ant-Man and Ava DuVernay before Coogler on Black Panther, it also allowed for a house style that helped the regular viewer buy into a world full of gods and supersoldiers. Anonymous directors such as the Russo Brothers thrived by translating the high stakes of Avengers: Infinity War into something familiar and legible.

Which isn’t to say that Feige has never allowed a director to express themselves. Most obviously, the three Guardians of the Galaxy films are very much James Gunn movies and both of Taika Waititi‘s Thor outings bear his mark, for better or worse. Less heralded but nonetheless effective was Joe Johnston’s sepia-toned take in Captain America: The First Avenger and Sam Raimi‘s incredible music note sequence in his return to superheroes Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

To be sure, Feige’s approach worked for quite a while. But it’s clearly started to break down. Whether due to changes in the industry or due to his needing to pay more attention to the Disney+ shows or due to actual superhero fatigue, the process is broken. Even largely well-received movies like Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps shows its seams as something cobbled together in the edit, proving that audiences don’t find the superhero spectacle sufficient to overcome problems with basic storytelling.

The decline in Marvel quality particularly stands out in contrast to the success of Sinners. Coogler took an original concept about twins returning to the Mississippi home to open a juke joint, only to find it assaulted by vampires, and turned it into a crowd-pleasing blockbuster. Without sacrificing any of his technical mastery (see: the standout music through the ages sequence) or any thematic depth, Coogler made something dazzling, thought-provoking, and entertaining—just like Marvel is in its best moments.

Officially, no one has said anything about Feige demanding that Val or Riri get so much screen time in Wakanda Forever. Perhaps Coogler and Cole did find those characters just as compelling as Okoye and more interesting than M’Baku, the last of whom only gets one significant scene in Wakanda Forever. And if the choice to focus on Val, Riri, and Ross belonged Coogler and Cole, then they bear the blame for the film’s failure. But that’s not how Marvel operated in the past.

It must be how Marvel operates in the future, at least where Black Panther 3 is concerned. Coogler already made the best movie the MCU, one that transcended the confines of genre cinema and became a true cultural event. Then he did it again, making one of the best genre films of the past five years. Surely, that’s more than reason enough for the architects of the now flagging MCU to step aside, and let Coogler follow his muse. The MCU will be better for it.

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