What Language Does Black Panther Speak in Civil War?

In this weekend’sCaptain America: Civil War, Marvel fans will be introduced to Wakanda native T’challa, a.k.a.Black Panther, a statesman who gets involved in the worldwide effort to create an agency that will watch over The Avengers. The country ofWakandahas been mentioned several times in previous Marvel movies, and in last year’sAvengers: Age of Ultron, we even met Wakanda native Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis), who is believed to return in the standaloneBlack Panthermovie. During certain scenes inCaptain America: Civil War, T’challa, played byChadwick Boseman, is seen speaking the Wakandan language with his father, T’chaka. But since the country of Wakanda doesn’t actually exist, some fans may be wondering what that language actually is.

Thankfully, directorJoe Russorevealed exactly what language we hearT’challaand T’chaka speak, in a new interview withEntertainment Weekly. T’challa speaks English throughout most of the movie, but in certain scenes where the father and son are communicating directly with each other, the director found a suitable language for them to speak, dubbed Xhosa. Here’s what the filmmaker had to say below.

“The language we used for Wakandan is called Xhosa.John Kani, the actor who plays T’Challa’s father in the movie, speaks the language and taught it toChadwick. It’s spoken by 7.6 million people in South Africa.”

While we don’t know for certain, it seems likely that we’ll be hearing more of the Xhosa/Wakanda language in the standaloneBlack Panther movie, which is slated for release on July 20, 2025. While no plot details have been given for the movie, it is assumed that the standalone adventure will be set in Wakanda. As of now, no other actors have been attached, butKevin Feigerecently revealed thatdirector Ryan Coogleris currently working on the script, and that production is slated to begin in early 2017.

No story details have been released forBlack Pantherat this time, and it isn’t known if any other members of theAvengerswill surface in this movie. As for the Xhosa language, one of its more prominent speakers is South African leaderNelson Mandela, who descended from the Thembu tribe of the Xhosa people. We’ll be sure to keep you posted with any and allBlack Pantherupdates as soon as we have more information, and be sure to check back on Sunday to find out howCaptain America: Civil Warfared at the box office.