Chadwick Boseman went on Jimmy Kimmel to talk a bit about his role as Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War, and his solo movie directed by Ryan Coogler. Turns out, at least a year before Boseman officially got the role, he had some superhero-esque foreshadowing going on. He describes being on a set in Australia, where a security man named Charles Carter (which is a total comic book name) gifted Boseman the first original 1977 Black Panther comic book, one year before Boseman got the role with the message “I believe you’re going to be Black Panther.” “Almighty janitor trope” anyone?
He also recalls being in Zurich when he got the officialy call, where he had to leave a red carpet and ride around in a car to maintain secrecy. The driver then stops by an antique shop with panthers in the display window. The man has his own origin story!
Boseman also spoke a bit about his portrayal of T’Challa. Black Panther is from the fictional African country Wakanda, which means he had to figure out what kind of accent he was going to use in the movie. There’s been some variation in the comic books about which region of Africa Wakanda is meant to be in, with many placing it in to the East African region and connecting it with the Kamba people in Kenya, also referred to as Wakamba. The American actor says in this clip that he had played a South African in Message from the King, and used the Xhosa accent he adopted to “find his base.”
Charles Carter, where are you? Can you send some comic books our way?
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