diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mesa18/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mesa18/package.py
index 78f99b252d7..bc18121b3ad 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mesa18/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mesa18/package.py
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ class Mesa18(AutotoolsPackage):
     depends_on('flex', type='build')
     depends_on('gettext', type='build')
     depends_on('pkgconfig', type='build')
-    depends_on('python', type='build')
+    depends_on('python@:3.8', type='build')  # https://github.com/spack/spack/issues/28219
     depends_on('py-mako@0.8.0:', type='build')
     depends_on('libxml2')
     depends_on('zlib')