Cognition Dissemination: Why Is Disney Sticking with Letitia Wright?

It was tempting to imagine that Letitia Wright had cleaned up her act since her social media meltdown nearly a year ago. The actress, put on the map after starring as Shuri in Black Panther, posted a link to a nonsense video questioning the COVID-19 vaccine’s contents just as the pandemic was still decimating the US and around the time the first vaccines were approved. The video, to top it all off, was also riddled with awful transphobia. What made this move so damaging was signal bosting it when vaccine hesitancy was high among black communities across the country, and further misinformation was unneeded. She deleted her social media accounts after heavy criticism from several people, including fellow Marvel star Don Cheadle, but didn’t apologize or recant anything before vanishing. She was, as it’s said these days, doing her own research.

In the time since, she had to have learned how misguided of an idea this was, right? It was made clear through insiders that Wright was reprising her role as Shuri in the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, while Disney had made clear that they were at least encouraging all their actors to get vaccinated. There have also been several clues that Shuri could take the Black Panther mantle in this installment following the departure of T’Challa, thanks to actor Chadwick Boseman’s untimely passing last year. Marvel opted to not recast T’Challa out of respect for Boseman, a decision reaffirmed by Marvel Cinematic Universe VP of development Nate Moore over the weekend. Shuri’s ascent would make sense if they were following the comics, and while the current post-Avengers: Endgame Phase of the MCU is still establishing itself.

Hoping for improved behavior from Wright was, as it turns out, wishful thinking. Word came out that she voiced vaccine skepticism on the Wakanda Forever set, though she subsequently claimed the report was untrue. Considering how reliable the Hollywood Reporter’s sources have been, though, it’s easy to believe that happened.

Now, following an unfortunate injury on the set that’s forced Wright to recuperate in her home country of England, another update from The Hollywood Reporter has cast doubt on whether she can even return. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) implemented a mandate for all travelers coming in from overseas to be fully vaccinated on November 8th. Wright is — surprise surprise — reportedly still unvaccinated after all this time, which could present problems for her return to the Wakanda Forever set in Atlanta, Georgia. There’s a chance that she could be vaccinated between now and early 2022, but it’s tough to see that happening if she’s taken this so far.

Was this all worth it for Marvel and Disney? This is a total mess, and if she isn’t willing to learn, they would have been better served by recasting Shuri. By not getting vaccinated, she’s actively endangered her older and immunocompromised actors. One among them would have been the aforementioned Chadwick Boseman, who was afflicted with colon cancer that he tragically succumbed to before he could reprise the role of T’challa for the new film.

It’s not as if Marvel is resistant to recasting. Take the role of James Rhodes, aka War Machine, initially played by Terrence Howard in the first Iron Man film. The role was recast with Don Cheadle come Iron Man 2 following a dispute between Marvel and Howard’s agent. There have also been comparatively minor recasts, too, like for Howard Stark between the aforementioned two films and Red Skull after Hugo Weaving declined to play the part again following Captain America: The First Avenger. The same thing could and should have happened here with Wright being such a pain, something they should have anticipated with her even liking tweets that called for the second Black Panther movie’s cancellation and called for Shuri’s recast before she deleted her Twitter account.

Making this situation hilariously ironic is how Shuri is one of the most intelligent characters in the Marvel universe, previously responsible for the technology that T’Challa used as Black Panther in the first film. Regardless of whether she becomes the titular hero or not, it could be tough for anyone in-the-know about Wright’s attitude to take the character seriously in the MCU going forward.

It’s still not too late for Marvel to give Wright the boot and recast the role. Further delays for Wakanda Forever may happen anyway if she keeps this up, and it would be worth their while if they dropped her and filmed new footage of the role with someone else in it. If this can’t happen, whether due to time or contractual obligations, then another character like Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) or Okoye (Danai Gurura) could take over. This would involve drifting from established comic book canon, but it’s not like live-action adaptations haven’t done that before.

There’s a chance that one of the aforementioned issues will be resolved, that Wright can return for filming when she recuperates. Actors for big Hollywood productions can get free passes for matters that would hobble the average person, after all. But this entire situation could have been avoided if Marvel or certain members of the Black Panther movie production team foresaw what was obviously going to happen one year ago. They made the bed, and they’ll have to sleep with the panthers from here on.

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