‘Captain America: Civil War’ Actor Chadwick Boseman Created Black Panther’s Accent

Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman isn’t just looking to the comic books for research. While promoting “Captain America: Civil War,” the actor and directors Joe and Anthony Russo revealed that Boseman has been pulling inspiration from real life.

Black Panther is from the fictional African country of Wakanda, but Boseman will do his best to make it sound like he really is from Africa. “He found a regional accent based on where Wakanda would be,” Joe told IGN. “Just an incredible, intense amount of detail.”

Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson made a similar choice for their “Avengers: Age of Ultron” characters, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. The twins are from Sokovia, a fictional European country. “We know that we’re from Eastern Europe,” Olsen told Screen Rant last year. “And it’s something that we got to create. It’s a make believe place, so it’s something that Aaron and I, with the dialect coach kind of create together.”

See Black Panther in the “Captain America: Civil War” teaser below:

Boseman’s research didn’t end with the accent. Anthony revealed that the 39-year-old actor studied the culture of African countries to make it feel more realistic. “He did great research on the very cultural aspects of the character,” the director explained to IGN. “Even though it's a fictional cultural, figuring out ways to tether it into real African culture.”

Of course, he still has to research the superhero part too, and that requires Marvel comic books. Boseman has been catching up on all the “Black Panther” source material.

“I think what you try to do is just get your hands on every single comic book you can find that has the character in it, or him being mentioned or anything,” he added. “I've just tried to read them all, not like it's really work. It is work – don’t get me wrong – it is work, but it's just sort of reading them like a kid, you know? Because when you just read it like it's work, you're just trying to get through it. So I think it's putting yourself in that mind frame to go through the mythology in a fun way.”

“Captain America: Civil War” will only give fans a taste of Black Panther’s story. His own movie will be released in 2018. For now, he has to share screen time with a long list of heroes in the third “Captain America” film. The thirteenth and reportedly longest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe pits Captain America (Chris Evans) against Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) when the government wants to control superheroes. All of the heroes will have to choose a side.

“Captain America: Civil War” hits theaters May 6, 2016.