Marvel Studios has officially cast its next Black Panther, but the actor's age might hint at a time jump after Avengers: Secret Wars, before Phase 7. As expected, the next protector of Wakanda will be T'Challa II, the son of Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa and Lupita Nyong'o's Nakia. Fans met T'Challa II, aka Toussaint, in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's post-credits scene, played by 6-year-old Divine Love Konadu-Son. Now, The Long Walk star David Jonsson is confirmed to take over for Black Panther 3, but there's one confusing detail: he is 33 years old.
Black Panther takes place in 2016, and the sequel, Wakanda Forever, is set roughly nine years later in 2025. Fans only know that T'Challa II was born somewhere in that window, either shortly before or during The Snap in 2018. That makes the Wakandan prince roughly 6 or 7 (sorry) years old in Wakanda Forever and, therefore, still under 10 when Doomsday begins in 2029.
While Jonsson certainly has a youthful face and could conceivably play in his 20s, as he did with Pete McVries in The Long Walk, that is still well over a decade older than the 10-year-old boy that T'Challa II should be. As Black Panther 3 lands as one of Phase 7's first movies on December 15, 2028, the duty falls to Avengers: Secret Wars to explain the major time jump that is coming for T'Challa's son.
That isn't the only sign that a time skip is coming for some characters after Secret Wars; A Quiet Place star Noah Jupe has been cast in an unknown role in the sixth Avengers movie, widely theorized to be an aged-up Franklin Richards. The cosmic-fueled hero is just 4 years old in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which is a similar, almost two-decade-long time jump to 21-year-old Jupe.
However, there is almost no chance that Marvel Studios actually jumps forward 10 to 20 years during Secret Wars, even to one-up Endgame's 5-year Blip. A time jump of that magnitude moving into Phase 7 would require recasting almost every character in the MCU, especially the youngest heroes like Jean Grey, Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop, Cassie Lang, and Billy and Tommy Maximoff.
When he announced T'Challa II's recasting at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Black Panther 3 director Ryan Coogler only said that the Wakandan prince "comes of age" in the highly anticipated trilogy-capper. But the massive jump in T'Challa II's age means that it will likely require a more complex, sci-fi explanation.
How Will Black Panther 3 & Avengers: Secret Wars Explain T'Challa II's Age Jump
Scooper Alex Perez addressed T'Challa II's age confusion in a recent edition of The Cosmic Circus' monthly Q&A, saying that it will come down to "universe-reshaping shenanigans." That may suggest that the reality reborn from the Multiverse's destruction in Doomsday will have key changes, including aging up T'Challa II and possibly more characters to be more mature players in Phase 7.
Interestingly, Marvel Comics' Secret Wars from 2015 began with an 8-year time jump, establishing that years had passed since the Multiverse collapsed and Doctor Doom reformed its remnants into a patchwork reality: Battleworld. It seems highly likely that David Jonsson will first appear as T'Challa II on Battleworld in Avengers: Secret Wars before he appears in Black Panther 3.
Even before Jonsson's casting, Daniel Richtman reported that the new Black Panther will indeed appear in Secret Wars, perhaps to lay the groundwork for explaining why T'Challa II is suddenly so much older. After all, if that legwork is done in Phase 6's final blockbuster events, Black Panther 3 can instead jump right into what is sure to be an emotional story about legacy.
The MCU could keep things simple by having the heroes come across Jonsson's new superhero on Battleworld, avoiding giving any over-complicated sci-fi explanation, before he simply replaces the pre-teen T'Challa II in the aftermath. That is bound to be a jarring experience for Shuri, whose actress, Letitia Wright, is a year younger than Jonsson, who is playing her once-younger nephew.
