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Remember a little while ago, when we told you that Denzel Washington was going to be in Ryan Coogler's Black Panther 3? Yeah, um, turns out we weren't supposed to know that. To be fair, it wasn't that Popverse itself broke the story sans the OK from Marvel Studios and the like - that was all Denzel's bad. Recently, the Gladiator II star revealed that the story was supposed to be between him and Ryan Coogler.

The story comes form an interview that Washington did with Variety, and that was published December 12. In it, Washington talks about the latest chapter in his acting career, working on his son Malcolm's directorial debut, The Piano Lesson, and at toward the end, the fact that he wasn't supposed to let the public in on his collaboration with Ryan Coogler.

"Ryan's a genius," says the Oscar-winner, "I called him and apologized for talking about the movie, and right there sitting with him was his beautiful wife. He’s still Ryan, humble and full of ideas. Whatever he writes, I’ll read."

Ah well - it certainly didn't hurt the hype for the next Black Panther, did it?

In fact, you could even look at this incident as confirmation that Washington is ready to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The NCU has had its share of spoiler-sharing stars in the past, most notably Tom Holland and Mark Ruffalo. But even Samuel L. Jackson has let slip a plot detail or too., and I'm sure if we dug hard enough we'd find more Avengers' associates that could say the same.

I guess it's just too exciting not to share. And honesty, Denzel, we're really not mad about it.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• The MCU needs Anya Taylor-Joy's Magik in it (and not just for the X-Men connection)
• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.