David Jonsson: Get To Know The New Black Panther With These 6 Essential Roles
It’s official: David Jonsson is set to become the next King of Wakanda. The up-and-coming British actor will star as T’Challa’s son in Black Panther 3, which is now officially set for release in December 2028.
All of this went down at the Marvel panel in Hall H of Comic Con—which is always the hottest ticket in town, and Saturday’s presentation did not disappoint. First came news of a pre-Doomsday re-release of Endgame, which is said to feature additional footage. Then came the big reveal that Ryan Gosling will follow up his Star Wars movie by playing Ghost Rider in a new movie set for release in 2028. All eyes were then on the star-studded Doomsday panel and the surprise Deadpool cameo, but it was Ryan Coogler (fresh from his Oscar triumph with Sinners) who really made headlines when he took to the stage with Letitia Wright (Shuri) and Winston Duke (M’Baku) to introduce Jonsson as the star of what will surely be Coogler's final Black Panther movie. (At the time of writing, Jonsson is still an outside bet to become the next James Bond, although this enticing announcement must surely put that one to bed.)
Given that he is 32 and likely playing the baby we saw at the end of Wakanda Forever, this has thrown up all kinds of possibilities about where Coogler is headed with his next Panther movie. We’ll have to wait and see about all that, but in the meantime you can brush up on Jonsson’s short but fascinating career so far.
In the list below, which I’ve arranged in chronological order, you’ll find what I think are the actor’s six essential roles to date—a list that includes prestige TV, a blockbuster franchise, and one of the most charming rom-coms in recent memory.
Even if you've never watched Industry, you’ve probably already become familiar with some of the stars whose careers it's helped launch since debuting on HBO in 2020. So far, this impressive list includes Marisa Abela (Back to Black), Myha’la (Leave the World Behind) and (presumably) T'Challa Jr. himself, David Jonsson.
In the first season, this prestige sleeper hit began by following a group of ruthless, horny and drugged-up graduates as they fought tooth and nail for a limited number of positions at a prestigious London investment bank. Now approaching its fifth and final run of episodes, it's since expanded into an ambitious panorama of the financial world and UK society—with recent seasons dipping their toes into the worlds of tech startups, journalism and politics.
As the gay, Oxford-educated Gus Sackey, Jonsson was only really a central figure in the first season. Still, his effortlessly suave charisma was enough to get those Bond rumours started—and what's more, since losing him, the show's never quite been the same.
In 2024, Industry fans who'd started to wonder why Jonsson’s role had become so diminished in Season 2 (after giving up the financial world and moving into local politics, Gus only appears in a few episodes) got their answer with Rye Lane. This charming British rom-com plays like a colourful South London riff on Before Sunrise.
For this one, a far more introverted role, Jonsson got to show a whole different side of his acting talents. The movie sees him play a heartbroken 20-something-year-old who meets another heartbroken 20-something-year-old (Vivian Oparah) at an art gallery, who spontaneously decides to pose as his girlfriend when he meets up with his ex.
From there, they simply walk and talk through a pleasing selection of vibrant locations as one thing delightfully leads to the other.
Early in 2023, Jonsson landed his first major Hollywood role in Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus, a legacy sequel of sorts to Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece. For this one, Jonsson plays an android named David. In doing so, he joined a short but remarkable lineage of actors who've played synthetic characters in the Alien franchise, including Ian Holm, Lance Henriksen and Michael Fassbender.
Álvarez’s underrated movie took a back-to-basics approach to the franchise, stripping back the lore in search of the original’s haunted house/space slasher vibe. The movie is not without its flaws, but thanks to Álvarez’s exciting young cast (alongside Jonsson, Cailee Spaeny is brilliant in the lead, and there are roles here for Spike Fearn and Isabel Merced, too), it felt like a fresh start.
After winning raves for his performance as David, Jonsson followed Romulus up immediately with a beefy starring role in The Long Walk: a high-concept dystopian movie that feels roughly two parts Hunger Games to one part Death Race 2000.
Adapted from a Stephen King novella and set in the near future, the story focuses on a brutal TV game show that follows a group of young men as they walk for days, at least until only one is left standing. Again, Jonsson got to show his chops among an exciting group of upcoming talents, including Cooper Hoffman, Charlie Plummer and Roman Griffin Davis. He also got to look incredibly buff.
With 2025’s Wasteman, Jonsson successfully tried his hand with another enduring genre: the British prison drama. This Bafta-nominated debut feature from Cal McMau saw Jonsson star as Taylor, a drug-addled inmate who learns he's set to be released in two weeks. That is, at least until a new cellmate (Tom Blyth, who played a young President Snow in the recent Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) arrives with a plan to take over the prison’s drug trade and drag Taylor along with him.
Fans of movies like Starred Up or shows like Time will recognise the structure and story beats of Wasteman immediately, but as we all know, tropes are tropes for a reason. Better still, like all the best movies in this genre, Wasteman provides a pressurised stage for its actors to perform to their physical and psychological limits.
Since Industry, Jonsson’s work on television has remained a little low-key. He had substantial roles in Murder is Easy and The Road Trip some years ago, but neither one could quite be described as a huge success.
The same can’t be said for Netflix’s Too Much, a hilarious London-set romantic comedy (by Girls creator Lena Dunham) in which the irrepressible Megan Stalter plays a lovesick US emigre who falls for a floppy-haired musician played by Will Sharpe.
For this one, Jonsson only appeared in a single episode as the generously named Oriel Terrabianco—the husband-to-be at the stately wedding in Episode 8. However, he makes something memorable from what could have easily been a throwaway role. It also, neatly enough, saw him reunite with Lena Dunham—who directed him on the pilot of Industry five years and a lifetime before.
