The Marvel Cinematic Universe got tons of thrilling updates out of San Diego Comic-Con, including the revealed that David Jonsson will be playing T'Challa's son in Black Panther 3. He's been welcomed by Winston Duke and the fandom, and Kevin Feige recently recalled how the Alien: Romulus actor ended up getting the role months ago after having a top secret meeting over upcoming Marvel movies.
Fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order were thrilled to learn that Prince T'Challa would be returning (and aged up) for Ryan Coogler's Black Panther 3. During a conversation with Empire, Feige revealed how this thrilling bit of casting news came about. In his words:
I’ll give you the real scoop. We hadn’t started a search yet. Ryan was working on Sinners, and when Ryan works on a project he’s all in. So the presumption very much was we would sit with him after Sinners came out, after the Academy campaign. We were waiting ’til after the Academy Awards to sit with Ryan and begin that process.
Honestly, this is fair. While Coogler is synonymous with the Black Panther movies (which are streaming with a Disney+ subscription), he's got other projects that he also puts his full attention on. That includes the Oscar-winning horror movie Sinners, which was a sensation upon its release in 2025. So Feige wasn't expecting to start working on casting for the Marvel threequel.
So what changed? It turns out that Coogler himself discovered David Jonsson, and knew that's who he wanted to play Prince T'Challa. As Feige later shared:
A month and a half or so before that process, he called me and said, ‘I found him.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘I found him. He’s this guy, David Jonsson.’ He mentioned his movies. I had seen some of them. I watched more. He goes, ‘I’m going to meet him.’ 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.’ And I got chills, and I got a little welled-up and said, ‘Let’s do it’. So we’ve been sitting on this secret for a good five or six months.
Marvel is known for its tight security, and clearly Feige, Coogler, and Jonsson know how to keep a secret. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's credits scene revealed that T'Challa and Nakia had a son, and fans have been wondering how that would influence the MCU as a whole. Specifically the fictional nation, which has very specific criteria for its leaders.
Our answers will finally come when Black Panther 3 hits theaters on December 15, 2028. We might have to wait a while, but Shuri, M'Baku, Namor, and Wakanda itself are expected to appear in Avengers: Doomsday on December 18th as part of the 2026 movie release list. We'll have to see if T'Challa's son gets referenced at all during that blockbuster.
