Chadwick Boseman struggled to breathe when he first wore his 'Black Panther' suit.

Chadwick Boseman

Chadwick Boseman

The 41-year-old actor was first seen as T'Challa aka Black Panther in 2016's 'Captain America: Civil War' but admitted the tight, spandex suit felt too restricting and said he felt like he was "suffocating" when squeezed into it.

Speaking to Variety, Boseman said: "It was suffocating. Literally, it closed off every possibility of air getting to you. I was in it, put the mask on. I said, 'Hey, you got to get me out of this!'"

Now, Boseman is donning the suit once more for his standalone movie as the superhero and revealed he has become more comfortable with the costume.

He said: "I think it begins to feel like skin after a while. But it takes time to get to that place."

The Black Panther character was created by legendary Marvel Comics writer Stan Lee and the equally iconic artist-and-writer Jack Kirby and first appeared in 'Fantastic Four #52' back in 1966.

Ryan Coogler directed the movie which will take on the plot which was first introduced in 'Captain America: Civil War' of how T'Challa becomes the superhero the fictional African nation of Wakanda.

Boseman doesn't think a white filmmaker could have helmed 'Black Panther' because they wouldn't have the "same conflict" that Coogler could bring to it as an African American man.

He said: "Well, is it possible for them to make? It could be, yes. Would they have his [Coogler] perspective? Probably not. It wouldn't be nuanced in the same way because they wouldn't have the same conflict. They don't have the African-American conflict that exists: whether you're conscious of it or not, you have an ancestry that is very hard to trace."