Letitia Wright Is Still Processing Severe Black Panther 2 Set Injury: It Was Really Traumatic
Letitia Wright may have delivered a career-best performance in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” but the actress is still recovering from a “traumatic” on-set injury.
Wright, who plays the late Chadwick Boseman’s onscreen sister Shuri in the Marvel films, was hospitalized in August 2021 after falling off of a “biscuit rig” riding a motorcycle during a Boston shoot. Per producer Nate Moore in a Variety cover story, the rig “clipped a median and sheared the bike off, and it tumbled.” Wright was hospitalized with a fractured shoulder and a concussion.
While Marvel assured the injury would not delay the film, Wright’s accident pushed production back over four and a half months, with Wright returning in January 2022.
“I’m still processing it,” Wright said. “I’m still working through it in therapy. It was really traumatic.”
Writer/director Ryan Coogler heard about Wright’s accident over the phone while filming in Atlanta.
“It was about how you can imagine,” Coogler said. “I mean, I love these actors. That’s me and Chad [Boseman]’s little sister. Imagine getting that call that your little sister’s hurt. It’s the fucking worst thing in the world.”
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige added, “It was horrifying on any production happening to anybody. It was particularly harsh on this production that was already emotionally strained.”
Wright told both Feige and Coogler while in the hospital that she just was “wanting to finish my film, man,” to which Coogler urged her to take time and properly recover. Wright went back to London to recuperate while “Wakanda Forever” production continued, shooting scenes that did not involve her character Shuri.
Yet amid rumors that Wright was unvaccinated and barred from returning to the U.S. due to CDC mandates, producer Moore said he wasn’t aware of Wright’s vaccine status during production on “Wakanda Forever” and didn’t ask. Wright was earlier the subject of controversy after sharing a video in December 2020 questioning the vaccine.
“It’s not a question we asked of anybody, to be quite honest,” Moore said. “She never talked about her views either way. We read the stories that I would argue were unfair, because I don’t know where they’re coming from. As someone who literally is on set next to the monitor all the time, I feel like I would have heard it.”
Moore continued, “She only ever was the utmost professional and a joy to have around. She didn’t cost us a moment. I mean, her injury was the thing that cost us, and that was no fault of her own.”
Wright’s eventual return to set in January 2022 was met with a “great, great, great medical support” team to help her deal with post-concussion syndrome, as Wright said, as well as “great patience on set.”
“I’m just extremely proud of myself,” Wright said. “I’m extremely proud of Ryan [Coogler], of the team, for just the resilience — overcoming adversities every step of the way. When I finished filming, I cried like a little baby.”
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