Ryan Coogler Found His Black Panther in a Secret Meeting Six Months Ago

Marvel's Kevin Feige just pulled back the curtain on how David Jonsson landed the Black Panther role — and it wasn't your typical Hollywood audition process. According to Feige, director Ryan Coogler met with Jonsson in a hush-hush sit-down half a year ago and basically knew right then. "I got chills," Feige said about how quickly Coogler identified his next leading man.

The wildcard here is that Marvel hadn't even officially started searching for the role when Coogler and Jonsson connected. That's the kind of move that says everything about how much faith Coogler had in the actor from jump. Jonsson's been building his resume with projects like "The Long Walk," so he wasn't exactly a household name when this went down.

It's a reminder that sometimes the best casting decisions happen away from the spotlight, when a director just knows. Now we wait to see what Coogler does with the character next.

Read the full story at Variety → https://variety.com/2026/film/news/kevin-feige-ryan-coogler-david-jonsson-black-panther-3-1236821563/