Marvel Studios used its San Diego Comic-Con panel for more than just Avengers: Doomsday teasers. On stage, studio president Kevin Feige and writer-director Ryan Coogler confirmed that a third Black Panther film is officially in production — and, crucially, that the mantle is being handed to a new hero.
The film carries the straightforward title Black Panther 3 and is set to arrive in theaters on Dec. 15, 2028. Coogler returns to the director’s chair, and he’s making a deliberate technical choice: rather than shooting digitally, he’ll capture the movie on larger-format celluloid film. It’s a notable decision in an industry that has largely abandoned physical film, and one that signals Coogler’s ambition for the visual scale of the project.
The biggest reveal, though, is the casting. The son of T’Challa — first introduced in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — will step forward as the new Black Panther, played by David Jonsson, known for Alien: Romulus and The Long Walk. What was a brief, quiet moment in the 2022 film now becomes the emotional core of a new chapter. Beyond that setup, Marvel is keeping plot details firmly under wraps.
Context matters here. Coogler had signaled his intent to return to Wakanda for a while, but he’d been busy with other work, including an X-Files reboot and the acclaimed Sinners. With schedules finally aligning, this becomes the first Black Panther entry since 2022 — the year Wakanda Forever served as a heartfelt tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman. In that film, Letitia Wright’s Shuri took up the suit, and despite a notoriously difficult production, it grossed $859 million worldwide.
One name conspicuously absent from the panel was Denzel Washington. Back in 2024, while promoting Gladiator 2, Washington casually let slip that Coogler was writing a role for him in Black Panther 3. Marvel didn’t confirm his involvement at Comic-Con, so for now his participation remains unofficial.
As for where this sits on Marvel’s crowded release calendar, Shuri’s Black Panther and other Wakandan characters turn up next in Avengers: Doomsday, hitting theaters on Dec. 18. From there, the roadmap runs through Avengers: Secret Wars and Ghost Rider before Black Panther 3 lands in late 2028.
With a new lead, a returning visionary director, and a commitment to film stock over pixels, Black Panther 3 is shaping up as one of the more distinctive projects on Marvel’s slate — even if the studio is telling us almost nothing about the story just yet.
