Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Goes On Hiatus Today As Letitia Wright Recovers From Injuries
Any injury suffered on a movie set that is significant enough to sideline an actor and force a temporary shutdown of production is obviously a serious one. News of trouble from the filming of the "Black Panther" sequel, "Wakanda Forever," first arrived in late August of this year when a stunt mishap during principle photography in Atlanta, Georgia resulted in injuries to star Letitia Wright.
Despite being characterized at the time as "minor" (her injuries ended up requiring a brief hospitalization), Wright has since returned home to the U.K. for rest and healing and has remained out of commission. After adjusting the schedule accordingly, filming continued for some time afterwards as director Ryan Coogler and the rest of the crew attempted to work around her absence and complete as much as they could without needing to involve her character. Wright plays Shuri, the younger sister of T'Challa, aka Black Panther (who was played by the late Chadwick Boseman, and will not be recast for the sequel).
The last update we received indicated that "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" would enter a temporary hiatus in order to provide extended time for Wright to fully recover from her injuries. Now, we're finding out the details about how badly she was hurt in the accident.
Letitia Wright's Recovery
Deadline reports that "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" officially entered its filming hiatus today, confirming previous reports that it would occur around the week of Thanksgiving and that production would restart in early 2022. Additionally, this new report also indicates that the plan is for Wright to rejoin the cast and crew in January, should her recovery go as expected. However, the real eye-opening information within this update mostly concerns the full extent of Letitia Wright's injuries.
According to Deadline, Wright sent a video message to the entire team to thank them for their support while Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, co-president and producer Louis D'Esposito, and producer Nate Moore sent a lengthy note to the cast and crew earlier today. In part, it reads:
As we wind down for the holidays, we wanted to send a note of thanks and appreciation for the hard work of our entire cast and crew, as well as an update on timing. First and foremost, this project is exceptional and something we know audiences are eager to see. We could not be any more excited to complete this film and share it with the world next year. Thank you for everything you've done to get us to this place.
Unfortunately, we've not gotten here without a few setbacks. Running a production of this scale in the midst of a pandemic is not an easy task, and you have remained diligent and professional throughout. In addition, as you are all aware, Letitia had a frightening accident on our set during a stunt back in August. It was a reminder of the importance of safety at all times in our work, which we know you understand and are committed to. What we had initially thought were minor injuries turned out to be much more serious with Letitia suffering a critical shoulder fracture, and a concussion with severe side effects. It has been a painful process and Letitia has been home recovering with her doctors and the support of family.
Concussions tend to be incredibly difficult to treat, as severity can differ on a case-by-case basis and symptoms can last up to weeks (or even months) afterwards. If we take these words at face value, doctors also underestimated Wright's "critical shoulder fracture." Wright's vaccine status, unfortunately, hangs over all of these circumstances as well.
/Film will cover any more updates as they come in.
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" is currently set to release in theaters on November 11, 2022.