The Black Panther Director Is Into the Idea of a Female Spinoff

2 minute read

Warning: Minor Black Panther spoilers ahead.

Following the massive success of Black Panther, director Ryan Coogler is apparently interested in the idea of a female-led spinoff of the Marvel superhero flick.

According to Variety, during a discussion at Cannes Film Festival on Thursday, Coogler spoke about how integral the female characters of Black Panther—chiefly, Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and Shuri (Letitia Wright)—were to the movie’s triumph.

“I think you could argue they are more important,” he replied when asked if the women were as important as the men. “There’s a whole section of the film where T’Challa [Chadwick Boseman] is out of the movie and you’re just following the women. That’s one of my favorite parts of the movie when I watched it, and I didn’t expect that. That part of the movie you feel like you’re watching something fresh and new. That part of it was exciting. We have these actresses who could easily carry their own movie.”

But Coogler didn’t stop there. The director went on to say that if the chance arises, he would totally be on board with helming that very film. “That would be amazing if the opportunity came up,” he said. “They did it in the comic-book version.”

More Must-Reads From TIME

Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com