British actor David Jonsson has been handpicked by Marvel to play the next Black Panther in the third film of the franchise, taking on the mantle of T'Challa after the death of Chadwick Boseman.
Jonsson, 32, was introduced on stage by director Ryan Coogler at Comic-Con in San Diego, where the crowd erupted into chants of 'Wakanda forever'. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recalled that Coogler first suggested Jonsson six months ago, saying: 'He called me and said: “I found him.”' Coogler later told Feige: 'He's the guy. I felt it in my soul. He's a good man, and he is the next Black Panther.'
From east London to Wakanda
Jonsson grew up in Custom House in east London's Docklands, the youngest of four children. His father worked as an IT engineer at Heathrow, his mother for the Metropolitan police. He describes his heritage as Creole, with roots in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, the Caribbean and Sweden. His parents separated when he was 11, and he was expelled from school for fighting as a teenager. 'I wasn't a bad kid at all,' he told the Guardian. 'I was just a bit … distracted at the time.'
He told his mother, one of the first Black police community support officers in London, that he wanted to be an actor. At a new school in Hammersmith, he began performing in school plays and at 16 won a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Returning to Britain, he joined the National Youth Theatre before winning a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Rapid rise on stage and screen
Jonsson left drama school early to join a revival of Mary Stuart opposite Juliet Stevenson, which transferred to the West End. His 2021 performance in And Breathe … at the Almeida won him a Black British Theatre Award. Television came with early roles in Endeavour and Deep State, but his breakthrough was as Gus Sackey in the HBO/BBC banking drama Industry. He left the show in 2022, saying: 'Life is short, art is long.'
His first film lead was in Raine Allen-Miller's acclaimed 2023 romcom Rye Lane, which earned him a British Independent Film Award nomination. He became the first Black lead in a TV adaptation of Agatha Christie with the BBC's Murder Is Easy. Then came the sci-fi horror Alien: Romulus in 2024, which earned him the Bafta Rising Star award, followed by the Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk and the British prison film Wasteman, which earned him a second Bifa nomination.
Conscious of representation
Jonsson has long been aware of what his roles represent. 'Every character I do, no matter what, I'm going to be a Black man first,' he has said. Accepting his Bafta award last year, he added: 'Growing up, I had the Denzel Washingtons and Idris Elbas, but they're not me. There's not enough space for diverse talent in this industry. I realise I have an important role in defining what Black is.'
The mantle of Black Panther passed once before, to Letitia Wright's Shuri in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). Jonsson will play the next generation of Wakanda's royal family, inheriting both the character's name and its huge legacy.
