After Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige announced that production on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever would be paused while Letitia Wright healed from her injuries (that were more serious than the studio realized), rumors began swirling that Wright would be fired from the franchise due to her alleged unvaccinated status. The actress had previously deleted her social media account after sharing a video where a pastor called the COVID vaccine the “Mark of the Beast” while also espousing transphobic views, which only further led to speculation that she was running afoul of Marvel.
However, those widespread rumors appear to be unfounded as the BBC reports that Wright has returned to the set of Wakanda Forever and production has officially resumed on the sequel:
Production was halted in November but has now resumed, according to Wright’s representative and Marvel’s parent company Disney. Wright’s spokesperson told BBC News: “Filming resumed this month as planned and we’re on schedule.” The film is due to be released this November.
As for how Wright was able to fly from London to the U.S. despite reportedly being unvaccinated, well, that has not been addressed, but at this point, it appears to be a fool’s errand to speculate on her status with the Black Panther franchise. Despite the internet’s collective thinking on Wright not returning, that ended up clearly not being the case. Now, the interesting question is whether the sequel will follow the comic books and — spoilers for people who haven’t read the comics — pass the mantle of the Black Panther down to Wright’s character Shuri, and how will fans receive that development following her anti-vax controversy.
(Via BBC)
