Michael B. Jordan has addressed David Jonsson's casting as the next Black Panther.
At San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, long-running Black Panther director Ryan Coogler revealed that British actor Jonsson will star as the superhero in Black Panther III.
The Alien: Romulus star will play T'Challa II, the grown-up son of Chadwick Boseman's original Black Panther T'Challa.
Jordan, who starred alongside the late Boseman in 2018's Black Panther, reacted to the news at the Los Angeles premiere of Spider-Man: Brand New Day on Monday.
When asked for his thoughts on the casting, he told Entertainment Tonight excitedly, "Oh, I love it. It's amazing! I can't wait, can't wait!"
Jordan, a longtime Coogler collaborator, played Erik 'Killmonger' Stevens in the first Black Panther and reprised the role for a cameo appearance in 2022's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The film, which was rewritten following the death of Boseman in 2020, follows the fictional nation of Wakanda grieving the death of T'Challa, and his sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) taking on the role of Black Panther.
During a mid-credits sequence in that film, audiences learn that T'Challa had a secret son named Toussaint, whose Wakandan name is T'Challa. Jonsson will play the adult version of that character.
In an interview with Empire after the announcement, Marvel boss Kevin Feige revealed that Coogler met with Jonsson earlier this year and they've been sitting on the casting news for almost six months.
"(Coogler) goes, 'I found him. He's this guy, David Jonsson.' He mentioned his movies," Feige recalled. "He goes, 'I'm going to meet him.' He had a secret meeting with him under (the) 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."
Black Panther III, also starring Wright and Winston Duke, will be released on 15 December 2028.
