Marvel Studios has found its new Black Panther, and the casting happened far sooner than anyone anticipated. The HBO’s Industry star got the role after a clandestine meeting with director Ryan Coogler, a process Marvel boss Kevin Feige has now detailed for the first time. The announcement, made during San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H panel, confirmed the third part will release in cinemas on December 15, 2028.
Kevin Feige reveals how Ryan Coogler cast David Jonsson as Black Panther
Feige told Empire magazine that the studio had planned to wait until after the Academy Awards to begin searching for its next lead. Coogler was immersed in post-production on Sinners, and the assumption was that casting conversations would follow the Oscar campaign.
That timeline collapsed when Coogler phoned Feige roughly six weeks before those planned discussions. “I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘I found him. He’s this guy, David Jonsson,'” Feige recalled to Empire.
The director mentioned Jonsson’s previous work and arranged a meeting entirely off the radar. “He had a secret meeting with him under cloak of darkness in a hotel somewhere, and called me afterwards and said, ‘He’s the guy, he’s the guy, I felt it. I felt it in my soul. He’s a good man, and he is the next Black Panther.'”
David Jonsson will play the adult version of Prince T’Challa II, also known as Toussaint, the son of Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa and Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia. The character first appeared as a child in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The Black Panther 3 will follow the prince as he comes of age and accepts the mantle his father once held.
Original cast members Letitia Wright and Winston Duke are returning for Black Panther 3. Wright became the first to carry the Black Panther title following Boseman’s death from colon cancer in 2020, taking on the role in 2022’s Wakanda Forever. Now, Jonsson, also known for acclaimed performances in Rye Lane, Alien: Romulus, and The Long Walk, walked onto the Hall H stage to a roaring reception alongside Wright and Duke.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on SuperHeroHype.
