Marvel Studios closed out its Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con (you can find our live blog here) by announcing that Black Panther 3 is officially in the works from Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler.
The movie will be released in theaters on December 15, 2028, and in the post-Avengers: Secret Wars MCU, Alien: Romulus and The Long Walk star David Jonsonn will play the adult T'Challa II!
Introduced as the young son of T'Challa and Nakia in the 2022 sequel, fans have long speculated that T'Challa II (a.k.a. Toussaint) would be aged up to take his father's place in the MCU. The character doesn't exist in the comics, so we don't know how much he'll differ from his father, or whether this is a way to essentially recast the role without directly replacing the late Chadwick Boseman.
Jonsson is 32, so he's not exactly playing a teenage or hugely inexperienced T'Challa in Black Panther 3. Boseman was 40 when he played the hero in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, so his son's age suggests big changes are coming to the MCU after Secret Wars.
It was also confirmed that the threequel will be shot on larger format celluloid film, meaning we should be in for a real visual treat when the end of 2028 rolls around.
"I want to say thank you so much, thank you Ryan, thank you Kevin, thank you to this amazing family that I had the honour and the privilege and the blessing to join," the actor said in a brief, yet clearly emotional, message to excited fans.
Jonsonn has been named as a possibility for the role for some time now, though it looked like F1: The Movie star Damson Idris might be the favourite. However, Coogler noted that he cast the new T'Challa after seeing Jonsonn in The Long Walk, so there was likely very little to those Idris claims.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Letitia Wright said, "[Shuri] now has that mantle to pass on, and [that] guidance and the wisdom. I’m going to have a really, really good time, a lot of fun — and I’m going to pick on him so much."
Check out the official Black Panther 3 logo below, along with the moment Jonsonn joined Wright and Winston Duke on stage (his comments on the new T'Challa are also included here). You'll also find our recent interview with Jonsonn for his must-see movie Wasteman.