Marvel has its next Black Panther, and it isn’t a name most casual audiences would have guessed.

Director Ryan Coogler announced at Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con panel that David Jonsson would be taking on the role, with Coogler also returning to direct the third film in the franchise, set for release in December 2028.

Who is David Jonsson?

Jonsson is a 32-year-old English actor from London, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, who started his career on the West End before moving into television and film. He grew up in East London, the youngest of four siblings, with a mother who worked in the police force and a father who worked in IT.

His stage career began in 2016 with Mary Stuart at the Almeida Theatre, which later transferred to the West End. Television work followed, and he broke through playing Robert “Gus” Sackey, a Yale-educated intern navigating ambition and privilege, in the BBC and HBO drama Industry.

His film career has moved fast since then. He starred opposite Vivian Oparah in the 2023 romantic comedy Rye Lane, played the android Andy in 2024’s sci-fi horror Alien: Romulus, and took the lead role of Peter McVries in 2025’s The Long Walk, based on the Stephen King novel.

In 2025, he also won the BAFTA EE Rising Star Award, the only category at the BAFTA Film Awards decided by public vote, a marker of how quickly he’d moved from stage actor to one of British film’s most-watched names.

What’s known about Black Panther 3

Jonsson will play Prince T’Challa II, T’Challa and Nakia’s son, who was introduced as a child in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and will now come of age in the new film. Letitia Wright returns as Shuri and Winston Duke as M’Baku, with Coogler directing. The film will shoot on 70mm and is scheduled for release on December 15, 2028.

The casting process itself had been kept quiet for months. Marvel boss Kevin Feige has said Coogler met Jonsson in a private meeting arranged before an official search had even begun, and called Feige afterwards, convinced he’d found the right actor, a decision the studio sat on for five to six months before the Comic-Con announcement.

What Jonsson said on stage

Coogler framed the announcement around Wakanda Forever, telling the crowd the film had introduced T’Challa’s son as a child, and that in the new movie, “he grows up, he comes of age.” The crowd rose to a standing ovation as Jonsson walked out to join him.

Visibly moved, Jonsson kept his own remarks short. He thanked the cast and crew for the chance to join what he called “this amazing family,” adding that the honour was entirely his.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD

Remembering Chadwick Boseman

T’Challa was originated by Chadwick Boseman in the first Black Panther film, and Boseman died of colon cancer in 2020 at age 43, while Coogler was still working on the sequel.

Wright’s Shuri stepped into the title role in Wakanda Forever, effectively continuing the character’s legacy rather than replacing Boseman’s performance outright. Jonsson’s casting, coming almost six years after Boseman’s death, marks the first time a new actor has stepped into the title role of T’Challa’s lineage directly, playing his son rather than standing in for the character himself.