David Jonsson Is a Smart, Nerve-Rich Choice for Marvel’s New Black Panther
Ryan Coogler has cast British actor David Jonsson as the grown T’Challa II in Black Panther 3. If you know him from Rye Lane, Industry, or Alien: Romulus, the choice feels less like a surprise than a bet Marvel should want to make.
Ryan Coogler has chosen David Jonsson as the next Black Panther.
As Rolling Stone reported, Marvel Studios and Coogler announced at Comic-Con that Jonsson will play Prince T’Challa II, the son of T’Challa, in Black Panther 3. AOL reported that the film is set for release in December 2028, and that the character was first introduced as Toussaint in the Wakanda Forever post-credits scene with Lupita Nyong’o.
That is a lot of weight to hand to any actor. It is heavier because Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa is still fresh in the mind. AOL reported that Boseman died of colon cancer in 2020 at 43, before production began on Wakanda Forever. In that 2022 sequel, Letitia Wright’s Shuri took on the Black Panther mantle.
Jonsson is not being asked to replace Boseman’s T’Challa. The reported plan is different, and better: he is playing the son, now grown, stepping into a name that already carries grief, pride, and expectation.
Coogler Picked Him Quietly
Rolling Stone reported that Coogler met Jonsson in secret after the awards campaign for Sinners. According to the same report, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recalled Coogler calling him after the meeting and saying Jonsson was the one.
AOL also quoted Coogler saying the team had been keeping the secret for “a good five or six months.” At the Comic-Con panel, Jonsson kept his own comments brief. According to AOL, he thanked the Marvel family he was joining, then said he did not want to say too much because he wanted “the screen” to do the talking.
That is a good answer, partly because there is no clean speech that can make this role feel simple. The clean part is the casting. Jonsson has the kind of face movies love because it seems to think before it speaks. He can hold a frame without forcing it. In a Marvel role, that matters. The suit will do plenty. The actor has to give the silence a pulse.
Photo: Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
From East London To RADA
Rolling Stone reported that Jonsson was born and raised in East London and grew up in Custom House. The outlet said he described the neighborhood to Hollywood Authentic as close-knit but shaped by violence, and quoted him saying where a person grows up can affect what they believe is possible.
The family details vary by outlet. Rolling Stone described Jonsson, 32, as the youngest of five children, while AOL described him as the youngest of four siblings. Rolling Stone reported that his parents separated when he was 11 and that his mother worked as a police officer in North London.
