Marvel just handed one of its biggest franchises to a name most fans Googled for the first time Saturday night. So who is David Jonsson?
The short answer: the 32-year-old British actor who has quietly built one of the best resumes of any young actor working, and who Marvel revealed at its Hall H panel as the new Black Panther, playing T’Challa’s grown son T’Challa II in Black Panther 3, opening December 15, 2028.
From East London To The West End
Jonsson was born September 4, 1993 and grew up in East London’s Docklands. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 2016, and started his career on the West End stage, where he won a Black British Theatre Award for the play and breathe… in 2021. That theater-first pedigree is worth remembering, because Marvel has made a habit of handing its biggest roles to classically trained British actors right before the rest of the world catches on.
The Resume: Industry, Rye Lane, Alien: Romulus
His screen breakout came as Gus Sackey on Industry, HBO’s cutthroat finance drama that has become a talent factory for young British actors. From there he jumped to leading man in Rye Lane, the 2023 romcom that premiered at Sundance and made him a British Independent Film Award name.
Then came the role that changed everything: Andy, the synthetic in Alien: Romulus. Jonsson stole the $351 million hit playing an android whose loyalty programming gets rewritten mid-movie, essentially two performances in one, and it won him the 2025 BAFTA Rising Star Award. He even took a facehugger prop to the eye during filming, suffering a detached retina for his trouble. He’s set to return for the Romulus sequel.
The Long Walk Is Why Coogler Cast Him
When Ryan Coogler introduced Jonsson on the Hall H stage, he did it by citing The Long Walk, the Stephen King adaptation in which Jonsson starred opposite Cooper Hoffman as Pete McVries. The performance drove real awards chatter, and critics have spent the past year calling him one of Britain’s most exciting young actors, with his prison drama Wasteman, which he also produced, only adding to it.
Before Wakanda calls, he’s got a stacked slate: playing Sammy Davis Jr. opposite Sydney Sweeney in Colman Domingo’s Scandalous!, a role in Frank Ocean’s secretive film debut, and a reunion with Hoffman and Paul Dano in Chaperones.
Jonsson’s reaction to the Black Panther casting from the Hall H stage: “The honour is entirely mine.”
Black Panther 3 opens December 15, 2028, with Denzel Washington confirmed in the cast. For everything else from Marvel’s panel, check out our complete Hall H coverage.
