Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has revealed that director Ryan Coogler held a secret meeting with actor David Jonsson nearly six months ago before selecting him to lead Black Panther 3, a decision that left Feige deeply moved.

Speaking to Empire, Feige recalled how Coogler identified Jonsson as the ideal choice to play Prince T’Challa II, the son of the late King T’Challa, long before Marvel had officially started searching for the role.

“We hadn’t started a search yet,” Feige explained. “Ryan was working on ‘Sinners,’ and when Ryan works on a project he’s all in. So the presumption very much was we would sit with him after ‘Sinners’ came out, after the Academy campaign. We were waiting ’til after the Academy Awards to sit with Ryan and begin that process.”

According to Feige, Coogler contacted him unexpectedly weeks before those plans were due to begin.

“A month and a half or so before that process, he called me and said, ‘I found him. ’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘I found him. He’s this guy, David Jonsson.’ He mentioned his movies. I had seen some of them. I watched more. He goes, ‘I’m going to meet him.’”

Feige then revealed that Coogler arranged a private meeting with the actor to confirm his instincts.

“He had a secret meeting with him under the cloak of darkness in a hotel somewhere, and called me afterwards and said, ‘He’s the guy, he’s the guy, I felt it. I felt it in my soul. He’s a good man, and he is the next Black Panther.’ And I got chills, and I got a little well up and said, ‘Let’s do it’. So we’ve been sitting on this secret for a good five or six months.”

Marvel officially announced Jonsson’s casting during its Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday. The actor will portray Prince T’Challa II in Black Panther 3, which is scheduled to arrive in cinemas on Dec. 15, 2028.

Letitia Wright and Winston Duke are set to return for the third instalment, which will follow T’Challa’s son as he comes of age and assumes the mantle of Black Panther.