Letitia Wright Reveals ‘Traumatic’ Injuries She Suffered On ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Set For The First Time
In a new interview with ‘Variety,’ Letitia Wright revealed that she’s still ‘working through’ her injuries that she suffered on the set of ‘Black Panther 2’ last year.
Letitia Wright, 29, finally addressed the “traumatic” injuries she suffered while filming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, in a new interview with Variety. The incident happened in August 2021, according to Letitia, when the actress was filming a chase sequence on a “biscuit rig” in Boston. “It clipped a median and sheared the bike off, and it tumbled,” producer Nate Moore told Variety about the accident, which resulted in Letitia being hospitalized with injuries including a fractured shoulder and a concussion.
Letitia, who plays Shuri in the Marvel movie franchise, said that she’s “still processing” the scary incident. “I’m still working through it in therapy. It was really traumatic,” the actress added. Director Ryan Coogler, 36 was not on set when the incident happened and was informed about it over the phone. “It was about how you can imagine,” he said to Variety. “I mean, I love these actors. That’s me and Chad’s little sister. Imagine getting that call that your little sister’s hurt. It’s the f***ing worst thing in the world.”
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, 49, was also told what happen to Letitia. “It was horrifying on any production happening to anybody,” he said. “It was particularly harsh on this production that was already, uh…emotionally strained.” Letitia received visits from both Kevin and Ryan in the hospital. “I just remember wanting to finish my film, man,” she recalled. “I think that was one of the first things I said to Ryan. And he was like, ‘Tish, you need to recover.’ ”
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After the cast and crew filmed scenes without Letitia, production on the superhero flick officially shut down in November 2021 so Letitia could recover. They resumed filming two months later, in January 2022, but Letitia was still dealing with post-concussion syndrome. “I had great, great, great medical support, great patience on set,” she told Variety. “I’m just extremely proud of myself. I’m extremely proud of Ryan, of the team, for just the resilience — overcoming adversities every step of the way,” Letitia said, referring to Chadwick Boseman‘s death. “When I finished filming, I cried like a little baby,” she added.
While Letitia was recovering, reports claimed that she wasn’t vaccinated against COVID-19, after the actress had posted a since-deleted tweet where she questioned the efficacy of the vaccine. But producer Nate Moore told Variety that there was no drama about Letitia’s vaccination status on the set. “It’s not a question we asked of anybody, to be quite hones. 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.” Letitia did not address her vaccination status in the interview with Variety.
Letitia stars in the Black Panther sequel with Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Danai Gurira, and Angela Bassett, alongside MCU newcomers Tenoch Huerta, Dominique Thorne, and Michaela Coel. The highly-anticipated Marvel film does not feature Wakanda King T’Challa, after Chadwick’s tragic passing from colon cancer in 2020 at the age of 43. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever comes out Nov. 11.