--- title: 'David Jonsson Is a Smart, Nerve-Rich Choice for Marvel’s New Black Panther' type: 'blog post' section: 'Away From Set' format: 'Editorial feature' standfirst: '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.' author: 'CinePixo' published: '2026-08-22' updated: '2026-08-22' about_people: - 'David Jonsson' about_films: - 'Black Panther (2018)' tags: - 'who is David Jonsson new Black Panther' - 'David Jonsson T''Challa II Black Panther 3' - 'British actor cast as Black Panther' - 'David Jonsson Rye Lane Alien Romulus Industry' - 'Ryan Coogler David Jonsson Comic-Con casting' sources: - 'https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/iconic-co-star-david-jonsson-refused-talk/' - 'https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-lists/david-jonsson-new-black-panther-actor-1235600661/' - 'https://www.aol.com/articles/david-jonsson-meet-man-getting-184000000.html' - 'https://www.superherohype.com/movies/681827-black-panther-3-david-jonsson-casting-marvel-risk-taking' - 'https://thegrio.com/2026/07/27/who-is-david-jonsson-meet-the-man-getting-ready-to-take-on-the-role-of-black-panther/' - 'https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/david-jonsson-tchalla-ii-black-panther-3-1810647' - 'https://www.msn.com/en-nz/entertainment/celebrities/meet-the-new-black-panther-british-actor-david-jonsson-cast-as-t-challa-s-son-in-black-panther-3/ar-AA28L08M' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/blog/david-jonsson-is-a-smart-nerve-rich-choice-for-marvels-new-black-panther' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # 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.* By CinePixo, 2026-08-22 · Away From Set 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. ![David Jonsson at the 2025 CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Nevada.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/beefed91-37ad-4538-b3f9-946753b66eb0.webp) *Photo: Gage Skidmore · [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_Jonsson_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg)* ## 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. AOL reported that Jonsson began acting in school plays, earned a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at 16, and later graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2016. Rolling Stone also reported that he moved to New York after winning a scholarship to study theater history at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Those are the biographical pieces. The work is the better introduction. ![David Jonsson on the red carpet at the Big Screen Achievement Awards at the 2025 CinemaCon at The Colosseum Theater at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/91b1abff-0ae8-47f7-89c0-47964a8ff6d4.webp) ![David Jonsson on the red carpet at the Big Screen Achievement Awards at the 2025 CinemaCon at The Colosseum Theater at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/aeb97fff-8ae3-4c85-ab3e-0f12044a1dfb.webp) *Photos: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America · [CC BY-SA 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0) · [source 1](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_Jonsson_(54462736894).jpg), [source 2](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_Jonsson_(54462542161).jpg)* ## The Roles That Got Him Here Jonsson made his screen debut in Endeavour in 2018, according to Rolling Stone. His first big television role came with Industry, where he played Gus Sackey. IBTimes UK described the part as his breakout, and it is easy to see why. Gus could be sharp, guarded, funny, and bruised without the show asking him to explain himself every five minutes. Then came Rye Lane in 2023. If Industry made Jonsson look precise, Rye Lane let him be loose. The film needed charm, but not the glossy kind. It needed someone who could make awkwardness feel alive. Jonsson did that opposite Vivian Oparah, and the movie’s London setting gave him room to play a romantic lead without sanding off the odd edges. Rolling Stone listed Alien: Romulus among the projects that raised his profile, and Far Out noted that the film helped move him from television breakout to film actor with real momentum. In that movie, Jonsson’s Andy is tender and unsettling in ways the franchise does not always make time for. The hardware and horror are there, but he gives the film its ache. Far Out also reported that Jonsson appeared in Francis Lawrence’s 2025 Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk with Cooper Hoffman, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, and Mark Hamill. The outlet said he plays one of the young men forced into a brutal contest in a dystopian 1970s. ![David Jonsson by Gage Skidmore](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/df84acbb-38b3-4f41-81d1-e601d4646304.webp) ![David Jonsson (54462737149) (cropped)](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/02393a2a-3d85-4fcc-9e2c-b6aaa95b4c8a.webp) *Photos: Gage Skidmore · [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=163835213); Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America · [CC BY-SA 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=184795231)* ## The Mark Hamill Story Says Plenty The best small story in the pile comes from Far Out’s report on The Long Walk. Speaking to Empire, Jonsson said he did not speak to Hamill during filming. Hamill played the Major, the authoritarian figure overseeing the death march, and Jonsson said the distance “felt right.” That could sound precious from another actor. Here, it sounds practical. If Hamill’s job was to sit above the walkers like a threat, then keeping him at a remove was a way to protect the work. Far Out reported that once filming ended, Jonsson did meet him, and described Hamill as warm and generous with Hollywood stories. Far Out also reported that The Long Walk made more than $63 million on a $20 million budget, and said critics praised the film, with Jonsson’s performance drawing attention. Rolling Stone reported that Jonsson won the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2025, a public-voted BAFTA category. The outlet also listed his 2022 Black British Theatre Award for Best Male Actor in a Play for and breathe, and a 2026 Film Independent Spirit Awards Robert Altman Award shared with The Long Walk ensemble. ## Why This Bet Fits Black Panther SuperHeroHype framed Jonsson’s casting as the kind of risk Marvel used to take more often: betting on a rising actor before the whole world has made up its mind. The site compared the move to earlier MCU choices that helped turn actors into franchise faces. That read feels right. Jonsson is known, but he is not overexposed. He has done romance, finance-drama cruelty, science-fiction dread, and Stephen King endurance. None of those roles tells us exactly what his Black Panther will be, which is the point. Rolling Stone reported that Jonsson has also moved into producing, partnering with Sophia Gibber in 2025 to launch Grey Area, with backing from Tricky Knot. The outlet said he told Variety the company was built for stories that live in contradictions and emotional truths. Black Panther 3 will need some of that. A son carrying a father’s name is not a clean inheritance. A nation asking a young man to become a symbol is not a clean superhero setup. Jonsson’s best screen work so far has lived in the pause before someone decides who they are willing to be. Marvel has chosen an actor who can make that pause worth watching. ## How this piece was made **Format:** Editorial feature ## In this piece - [David Jonsson](https://cinepixo.com/people/david-jonsson) - 2018 · [Black Panther](https://cinepixo.com/movies/black-panther-2018) ## Sources - https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/iconic-co-star-david-jonsson-refused-talk/ - https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-lists/david-jonsson-new-black-panther-actor-1235600661/ - https://www.aol.com/articles/david-jonsson-meet-man-getting-184000000.html - https://www.superherohype.com/movies/681827-black-panther-3-david-jonsson-casting-marvel-risk-taking - https://thegrio.com/2026/07/27/who-is-david-jonsson-meet-the-man-getting-ready-to-take-on-the-role-of-black-panther/ - https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/david-jonsson-tchalla-ii-black-panther-3-1810647 - https://www.msn.com/en-nz/entertainment/celebrities/meet-the-new-black-panther-british-actor-david-jonsson-cast-as-t-challa-s-son-in-black-panther-3/ar-AA28L08M Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours. Source: https://cinepixo.com/blog/david-jonsson-is-a-smart-nerve-rich-choice-for-marvels-new-black-panther Written for CinePixo. Nothing on this page is imported prose.