Marvel Studios’ long-gestating Phase Three feature Black Panther, which recently signed Joe Robert Cole for scripting duties and saw its release date moved up from July 2018 to February of that year, so far has had a mighty difficult time locking down the perfect director.

Ava DuVernay (Selma) was first offered the gig over the summer, but she took a pass, as did F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton), who signed on to direct Furious 8 for Universal instead. Marvel seems determined to secure the services of a first-rate filmmaker, and according to a new rumor it appears that they may have found a new front-runner in Ryan Coogler.

On Thursday, Marvel Studios made the surprising announcement that they had scheduled an Ant-Man sequel entitled Ant-Man and the Wasp to be released on the plum July 6, 2018 date that had once belonged to Black Panther, which saw its release moved up to February 16 of that year. Meanwhile, the studio’s first female-oriented feature, the cosmic adventure Captain Marvel, once again had its release bumped now going from November 2, 2018 to March 8, 2019.

Captain Marvel has been in development at the studio for years, but it wasn’t until October 2014 when Marvel chairman Kevin Feige formally announced that the film would be released on July 6, 2018 as part of their Phase Three slate. Then Marvel and Sony managed to work out a deal over the rights to Spider-Man and yet another reboot was given the green light for a July 2017 release in between Marvel’s offerings for that year – Guardians of the Galaxy V.2 and Thor: Ragnarok. As a result, Captain Marvel lost its opening day to Black Panther and was moved back to the November 2, 2018 slot that it was recently forced to vacate.

Marvel Studios has just announced a huge change in their Phase Three movie schedule, with the addition of one sequel to the roster and release date changes for two promising franchise starters.

The July 2018 release slot that originally belonged to Black Panther – which just snagged Joe Robert Cole to write the script – has been given to Ant-Man and the Wasp, a follow-up to Marvel’s surprisingly successful (over $400 million in worldwide box office) blockbuster Ant-Man.

Marvel Studios is pretty determined to make that Doctor Strange movie. The film has been a pet project of studio president Kevin Feige for years, and the surprising box office success of Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man, has emboldened Marvel in going forth and building new franchises, from the foundations of iconic characters less grounded in reality, than Captain America and Iron Man. Mads Mikkelsen is currently in talks to play the unspecified villain in the Scott Derrickson-directed feature, and today the cast is gaining another big name as Rachel McAdams, most recently seen as Detective Ani Bezzerides in the divisive second season of the hit HBO crime drama series True Detective, has officially confirmed her involvement as part of Marvel’s second Phase Three superhero adventure.

More on this below.

The latest name to enter the competition for the coveted title role in Marvel Studios’ first female-fronted superhero adventure Captain Marvel is an unexpected cause for surprise, but a damn great choice if it turns out to be true.

According to Heroic Hollywood’s Umberto Gonzalez, Rebecca Ferguson, the Swedish actress who starred as Queen Elizabeth in the acclaimed 2013 Starz miniseries The White Queen and impressed audiences all around the world as the conflicted British spy Ilsa Faust in this summer’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, is rumored to be in contention for the role of the galactic superheroine also known by her Earthbound alter ego Carol Danvers.