Last week, it was announced that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is shutting down production in order to allow star Letitia Wright to recover from an injury. With her character expected to become the new Black Panther, Wright will naturally have had more action sequences to shoot and stunts to perform during the shoot.
This meant it wasn’t a huge surprise when there was a report in August she’d suffered a “minor injury” involving a stunt rig on location in Boston. Wright was taken to a local hospital, discharged soon afterward, and sources said they didn’t expect it to affect the shooting schedule.
Exact details on what happened to her are hard to come by, though we know that she was shooting a motorcycle chase as the story broke, so it seems likely the accident occurred during this sequence. In addition, co-star Angela Bassett said:
She had a little bit of a fall, but it’s not too bad. You know, anything like that will shake you up, but she’s just a little, slight, little petite thing. But she is fine and ready to go.
Given that Wright isn’t expected to be fit to work until early 2022, her injuries were obviously more severe than they first appeared. It’s possible that she’s recovering from some form of whiplash, which would tally with reports that she appeared fine in the immediate aftermath.
But fans are also suspicious that her extended absence may be related to her anti-vax beliefs. With Disney now requiring those working on their movies to be vaccinated, she may be refusing to get the jab and thus unable to work. Evidence against this is that the rule came into force in October and only applies to new shoots, meaning Black Panther: Wakanda Forever shouldn’t be affected by it.
Whatever the case, it sounds like a miserable situation for the cast and crew. Let’s hope they can indeed resume in 2022 or Disney and Marvel Studios have a massive headache on their hands.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now scheduled for November 11, 2022.
Published: Nov 8, 2021 07:49 am