EA has leased the Lakeview, a mass-timber office building on Kirkland’s waterfront, possibly to set up its new studio for the development of Black Panther.
According to commercial real estate sources (reported by Bizjournal), financial services company Robinhood has leased the building to Electronic Arts. The publisher has previously announced that it has hired former Monolith Productions VP and studio head Kevin Stephens to lead a new studio in the Seattle area.
While the studio has yet to be given a name, it is said to be working on an open world action adventure game. Previously, Jeff Grubb had revealed that a Black Panther game is in early development at the new studio founded by ex-Monolith VP Kevin Stephens and published by EA under the working title Project Rainier. Given that Kirkland is a suburb located east of Seattle, it’s highly likely that EA has leased the building in order to set up Stephens’ studio for the development of the open world Black Panther game.
Black Panther has appeared in many games thus far. He was featured as a playable character in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and voiced by Phil LaMarr. He also appears as an NPC in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, voiced by Tim Russ. He is playable in the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, and PC versions, and was originally a downloadable character for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
The Marvel character also made a brief appearance in in Storm’s ending for Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. He was featured as a playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online, the Facebook game Marvel: Avengers Alliance, the MMORPG Marvel Heroes, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel Avengers Alliance Tactics, Marvel Contest of Champions, Marvel Mighty Heroes, Marvel Future Fight, and Disney Infinity 3.0.
Meanwhile, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) version of Black Panther appeared as a downloadable playable character in Lego Marvel’s Avengers, as part of the “Civil War” pack. A DLC pack based on Classic Black Panther was also made available later on.
He also appears as a downloadable playable character in Marvel’s Avengers, voiced and motion-captured by Christopher Judge. In a show of respect for the late Chadwick Boseman, who played the role of Black Panther in the MCU and died on August 28, 2020, Square Enix postponed and changed the trailer reveal schedule to a date after the game’s release.
