Black Panther 3's New T'challa Actor Leaves Marvel With One Tricky Problem

20th Century Studios

The Marvel Cinematic Universe just got a major shake-up. While Marvel Studios' panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con was somewhat muted by Marvel standards, there were some huge announcements. For one, we got confirmation that Ryan Gosling will star in "Ghost Rider" from director Shawn Levy ("Deadpool & Wolverine"). Perhaps more importantly, we got confirmation that "Black Panther 3" is happening. What's more, it's going to bring in a new actor to play T'Challa.

To help close out the panel, "Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler came out on stage to confirm that he's returning for "Black Panther 3," which hits theaters in 2028. The biggest reveal came when it was announced that "The Long Walk" star David Jonsson will star as the new T'Challa. However, he won't be replacing the late Chadwick Boseman, who played the character in the 2018 movie. Jonsson will, instead, play that character's son. That opens up a host of questions, leaving Marvel with a tricky problem.

The ending of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" introduced us to T'Challa's son, who was a very young boy in that film. Jonsson is 32 years old and will be 35 by the time "BP3" comes out. So, how the heck is Marvel going to explain that gap, exactly? How are they going to wipe away a time gap of at least 20 years? For now, we have more questions than answers, but broadly speaking, we can take an educated guess.

The Multiverse Saga is reaching its conclusion. The most recent "Avengers: Doomsday" trailer revealed Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom, who is going to be the big bad that Earth's Mightiest Heroes must contend with as this saga comes to a close. What this is all building to may well explain how Marvel will be able to bend time in its favor.

Marvel Studios

This is all building to "Avengers: Secret Wars" next year, which will serve as the final movie of the Multiverse Saga. It's long been believed, and even hinted at, that this will serve as a soft reboot of sorts for the MCU. More importantly, it's going to be largely influenced by Jonathan Hickman's 2015 "Secret Wars" series, one of the best Marvel Comics series of all time. That's not just a great story, it's probably the key to fixing this time gap problem.

Without getting into the nitty gritty of it all, Hickman's "Secret Wars" focuses on Doctor Doom compressing the multiverse into a single universe. The multiverse is eventually restored, but with many changes along the way. This is how, for example, Miles Morales was able to join the main Marvel universe after being introduced in the Ultimate universe. So, some universe-bending shenanigans could result in the younger T'Challa growing up in the blink of an eye.

"I look to the comics, as I always do, in terms of our storytelling," Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige recently said on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast. "In both the Secret Wars — but particularly the [Jonathan] Hickman Secret Wars from 10 years ago — there's a nice roadmap to where we can go."

We can't know the specifics for now, but this pretty much tells us what we need to know. Little else is known about the sequel for the time being, but it's believed that Denzel Washington will make his Marvel debut in "Black Panther 3," which will make it even more of an event than it's already poised to be. We'll see how it all shakes out over the next year and change.

"Black Panther 3" hits theaters on December 15, 2028.