Black Panther’s Wakandans Nearly Had British Accents
Wakandan characters in Marvel’s Black Panther spoke to each other in a distinctive accent that was faint enough to be understood by movie-goers. Some viewers may have even correctly identified it as being based in Xhosa, one of the official languages of South Africa. But as appropriate as the dialect is for the fictional African nation, it wasn’t always the obvious choice.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman discussed one of the early possibilities for the conception of his character T’Challa, who was introduced in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War.
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Boseman explained that, while he favored an African accent for the character, Marvel initially proposed that Wakandans would have a British sound. “They felt that it was maybe too much for an audience to take,” he said. “I felt the exact opposite — like, if I speak with a British accent, what’s gonna happen when I go home? … It felt to me like a deal-breaker.”
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To get the right quality for his accent, Boseman worked with a dialect coach, and the voice of every Wakandan character seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has followed suit. Boseman’s commitment to honoring African culture in every aspect of Black Panther seems to have paid off: “I was like, ‘No, this is such an important factor that if we lose this right now, what else are we gonna throw away for the sake of making people feel comfortable?'”
