EA confirmed this week that it had canceled its upcoming Black Panther game and closed its developer, Cliffhanger Games. A new report provides more context and background as to the situation surrounding the game’s cancellation and what the game was aiming to be.
Bloomberg reported that the Black Panther game recently passed a development milestone, and the project was gaining momentum. However, sources said EA executives were upset that the game was still in pre-production after almost four years of work. After a portfolio review from EA management, the company reportedly chose to axe games in development for an extended period of time without making sufficient progress, and this included Black Panther.
Also canceled in this process were multiple titles at Apex Legends and Titanfall studio Respawn, including a new Titanfall game, according to previous reporting.
EA’s Black Panther game was going to build on some of the ideas that Cliffhanger boss Kevin Stephens had worked on with the Shadow of Mordor series when he was at Warner Bros., including the Nemesis system, the report said. For the Black Panther game, T’Challa, Killmonger, and Shuri would be playable characters, vying to become the new Black Panther.
Players were going to fight against the Skrull shapeshifting aliens, who had come to Wakanda. Some of these characters in the game might be impostors, and would have remembered and learned from player behavior, similar to how orcs in Shadow of Mordor would remember players and act based on previous interactions.
Developers had a hard time showcasing what made the Black Panther game special in presentations with management, and processes were slowed due to the team building a game and a new studio at the same time, the report said.
Following the game’s cancellation, staffers who worked on the project spoke out to praise the work the team did on what they hoped would be an “amazing” game. While the Black Panther game is no longer moving ahead, EA is still building an Iron Man game and multiple Marvel projects as part of a multi-game deal with Marvel.
EA’s Black Panther game is dead, but Amy Hennig’s Marvel game, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, features Black Panther prominently. The game was delayed and is now coming in 2026.
