Kevin Feige led the way as Marvel Studios returned to Hall H at San Diego Comic Con with a plethora of announcements. The big one that has the internet currently chirping is the news that we have a new Black Panther.
To close out an event that shared another trailer for the upcoming film Avengers: Doomsday, a tease that Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool could be added into the mix, and Ryan Gosling will take over where Nicolas Cage left off when he becomes Ghost Rider.
That’s all great news, but the biggest news belonged to Ryan Coogler, who stepped out on the stage along with longtime collaborators Winston Duke and Letitia Wright to reveal a December 15, 2028, release date for Black Panther III, AND, that David Jonsson will take over the mantle of Black Panther.
Jonsson, best known for his stellar performances in Alien: Romulus, The Long Walk, and the HBO drama Industry, will take the Heart Shaped Herb as a grown version of Toussaint, aka T’Challa II, whom we met in the emotional Wakanda Forever post-credit scene.
Jonsson is one of the new names, along with Denzel Washington, who will be in Black Panther III, but an actor of Jonsson’s caliber joining the MCU is the shot in the arm it needs.
Ryan Coogler Found His New Black Panther 5-6 Months Ago
Speaking on Jonsson getting the role, Kevin Feige revealed that Coogler couldn’t contain his excitement when he revealed that “he found his guy,” and they have been sitting on this news for about five to six months.
Per Variety:
“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.”
While Jonsson’s casting was met with much fanfare, there are plenty of people who were in their feelings about his casting, complaining about Shuri passing the mantle, Damson Idris not getting the role after many have been fancasting the F1 star, and the fact that it will be T’Challa’s son, and not the dead king of Wakanda, coming back.
You seriously can’t please everyone, especially Marvel movie “fans” who need to seriously go touch some grass, and will be in theaters when Black Panther III hits theaters in 2028.
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