“For me, it was a deal breaker”: how Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) imposed this powerful decision on Marvel

The late Chadwick Boseman, who died in 2020 from colon cancer, was chosen by Marvel Studios to play the famous superhero Black Panther. But his first appearance in Captain America: Civil War did not go smoothly with the studio on a question which may seem trivial but which is in fact political: what emphasis should be given to the Wakandan people in this universe?

If the subject may seem anecdotal, it is not at all when we talk about African countries. Indeed, initially, Marvel wanted the king of Wakanda, T’Challa, played by Boseman, to speak with a British accent. A mistake according to the actor, who wanted a purely African accent, as he explained to Hollywood Reporter in 2016:

Colonized Wakandans?

“[Les producteurs de Marvel] thought [qu’un accent africain] would be too much for the public. They said to themselves: ‘Will people be able to understand [cet accent] the whole movie?’ and ‘if we say yes today, we’ll be stuck with it forever’. I was thinking the complete opposite – like, if I speak with a British accent, what’s going to happen when I go home?”

Implied: ‘no one will respect me anymore’. At the microphone of Los Angeles TimesBoseman described this difficult discussion between Marvel and him even more clearly: “I told them it wouldn’t be right because if we [parlait avec l’accent britannique]this would amount to saying that [les Wakandais] were colonized.”

How far are we going to go to make people feel comfortable?!

How far was the actor willing to go to win his case? Well to lose the role of T’Challa:

“For me it was a deal breaker. I was explaining to them that this was a big factor and if we let this go now, how far are we going to go to make people feel comfortable?!

Marvel Studios

When Marvel relented, Boseman was relieved: “Once we decided to do it, we really went for it.”

The accent ultimately adopted in the film is African, Xhosa, a Bantu language spoken in South Africa.

This strong decision on the accent to adopt for the Wakandan language is obviously erased if we watch the film in French version, since the dubbing de facto erases this eminently political bias.