Winston Duke is coming back as M'Baku for Black Panther 3, and he is bringing a new prince of Wakanda with him. David Jonsson has joined the cast as Toussaint — Prince T'Challa II, the son of the late T'Challa — with Ryan Coogler returning to direct and Letitia Wright reprising her role as Shuri. The film is dated for release on 15 December 2028, according to Variety.

Marvel teased the third Black Panther at San Diego Comic-Con. The announcement lands as the wider Marvel release calendar is already in motion: Avengers: Doomsday, which features Duke's M'Baku, premieres 18 December, and its trailer has racked up 503 million views since its release on the Monday before the article (Variety).

For Jonsson, the role puts him at the centre of one of Marvel's most consequential franchises. The first Black Panther, released in 2018, earned $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office and collected seven Oscar nominations, winning three. Duke knows that world intimately: the 2018 film was his first credited screen role.

Duke told Variety he has no advice for Jonsson. Instead, he plans to trust him, play with him, and extend the same grace he himself received when he entered the franchise. He recalled being greeted "with a lot of grace" and told it was a safe space to work and play — an experience he now wants to recreate for the incoming actor. Duke also said he trusts Jonsson as an artist, and he trusts director Ryan Coogler and the MCU executive team with the casting decision (Variety).

Jonsson's character, Toussaint, was introduced in the closing moments of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) as the hidden son of T'Challa — the character played by the late Chadwick Boseman. Black Panther 3 will mark the first time the character takes a central role in a Wakanda-set story (Rotten Tomatoes).

The 15 December 2028 release date puts Black Panther 3 squarely in the holiday corridor — the same stretch of calendar that served the 2018 original so well. That film opened in February, but Disney has increasingly claimed the December frame for its event titles. Two years out from release, the cast is taking shape, the director is locked, and the torch is passing to a new generation of Wakandan royalty.