David Jonsson is set to play an adult version of T'Challa’s son in Black Panther 3, and Marvel Studios has locked the film for Dec. 15, 2028. The announcement came at San Diego Comic-Con, where Kevin Feige and Ryan Coogler also said the sequel will film on 70mm.
Black Panther 3 and 70mm
Dec. 15, 2028 gives the sequel a fixed theatrical runway, and the 70mm plan points to a big-screen presentation rather than a routine franchise entry. For a series that already grossed $1.3 billion worldwide with Black Panther and more than $850 million with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the release date locks the next chapter into Marvel Studios’ long game.
David Jonsson arrives with momentum of his own. He had key roles in Romulus and The Long Walk, and a main role on the first two seasons of Industry, which makes him a practical pick for a part that has to carry both franchise continuity and a visible jump in age.
Wakanda Forever’s Young Son
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ended by revealing that T'Challa had a young son with Nakia, so this casting fills in the older version of a character the sequel had already put on the board. That is the unusual part of the announcement: the new film is not introducing the family line, but moving it forward years later.
Chadwick Boseman played T'Challa in the 2018 Black Panther, which became the first superhero feature to land an Academy Award nomination for best picture. After Boseman died in 2020, the franchise continued, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever later won one Oscar from five nominations while Angela Bassett became the first performer nominated for an Academy Award for a performance in a Marvel movie.
Marvel Studios’ Next Move
Kevin Feige and Ryan Coogler have now turned that family thread into the center of the next sequel’s cast. For readers tracking the franchise’s direction, the practical takeaway is simple: the next Black Panther film now has both a release date and a younger lead-family role anchored to the original story’s legacy.
The only real open question is how the film will bridge the time jump from a young child in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to Jonsson’s adult version in Black Panther 3. That gap is now part of the selling point, not a footnote.
