Earlier this month, as part of a wider report on Hollywood’s reckoning with vaccine mandates and safe filming practices in the covid-19 pandemic, the Hollywood Reporter wrote that a source told them Marvel’s Black Panther star Letitia Wright continued to spread anti-vaccine disinformation on the set of its sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Over a week later, Wright stepped back onto social media to deny the claims.
The October 6 piece alleged that Wright — who had previously deleted her Twitter account in the wake of sharing a deeply concerning video from a self-proclaimed prophet in December 2020 — had continued to share anti-vaccination beliefs on Marvel Studios’ Atlanta, Georgia set of Wakanda Forever. Wright’s character, Princess Shuri, is set to have a large role in the film in light of Chadwick Boseman’s tragic passing last year, and the report went on to add that Wright also parted ways with her U.S.-based public relations team as part of her response to the backlash about sharing covid-19 misinformation.
“My intention was not to hurt anyone,” Wright previously tweeted after deleting her link to the video. “My ONLY intention of posting the video was it raised my concerns with what the vaccine contains and what we are putting in our bodies.” But after her role in THR’s report went somewhat viral earlier this month, the actor has now decided to respond. Wright denies the claims that she’s continued to share these views on Wakanda Forever’s set. Taking to her still-active Instagram account — although before yesterday’s post, its last update was in November 2020, weeks before she shared the aforementioned video elsewhere — the actor said that the claims by the trade were “completely untrue.”
“It saddens me to have to address the reports published by The Hollywood Reporter on October 6th 2021. The report spoke about my conduct on the set of black Panther 2. I honestly assert that this was completely untrue,” Wright’s caption reads in part, accompanying an image displaying a fragment from the Contemporary English Version Bible’s reading of Isaiah 54:17, “Weapons made to attack you won’t be successful; Words spoken against you won’t hurt at all.”
“Anyone who knows me or has worked with me, knows that I work incredibly hard at my craft & my main focus is always to do work that’s impactful and inspiring,” Wright continued. “That has been & will continue to be my only focus.” Marvel Studios itself has remained silent on both the initial response to Wright’s tweet as well as recent reporting about her Black Panther: Wakanda Forever set conduct (although fellow Marvel co-stars like Don Cheadle did call the actor out at the time, in similarly since-deleted tweets).
io9 has reached out to Disney for comment on the allegations and will update this post if we hear back.
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