Lupita Nyong'o Has Recovered From Covid And Is Showing Off Her Black Panther 2 Training
Just when it seemed like "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" was ready to resume filming after halting production to give Shuri actor Letitia Wright time to recover from a stunt-related injury, the Marvel sequel hit another snag. As we reported last week, director Ryan Coogler and his team were forced to hit the brakes again when several members of the movie's staff tested positive for COVID-19, star Lupita Nyong'o among them. Thankfully, it seems Nyong'o is now on the mend and hard at work preparing to reprise her role as the Wakandan spy Nakia once shooting restarts.
The Oscar-winner confirmed as much with a recent update on her verified Instagram account, which featured a photo of her recovering in bed along with an image and video of her doing physical training for "Wakanda Forever." Her post also included a message reading, "I may have been down... But I am coming back!" It went on to add:
"Working out is not always cute but I never regret moving my body. So happy and thankful to be back at it. Thank you for all the well wishes!"
Things Are Getting Better in Wakanda
Not to sound like a broken record after my previous articles on the subject, but it's been a tough journey for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" so far. It all began with T'Challa actor Chadwick Boseman's tragic death from colon cancer in August 2020, which left the world reeling from this shocking loss.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige later confirmed that T'Challa wouldn't be recast in the main Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline, leaving it to Coogler and his co-writer Joe Robert Cole to completely overhaul the "Wakanda Forever" script before shooting got underway. And this was all before the movie found itself at the center of not one but two political controversies: Marvel and Coogler's decision to film the "Black Panther" sequel in Atlanta in spite of Georgia's new restrictive voting laws, and the criticisms of Wright's anti-vaccine views (which threatened to create more logistical complications for the production).
In spite of all this, "Wakanda Forever" keeps chugging along and still looks set to arrive later this year. After his first three films as a director ("Fruitvale Station," "Creed," and "Black Panther"), I'm also hopeful that Coogler will overcome all these obstacles to deliver a worthy sequel that gives Boseman's Wakandan superhero the heartfelt sendoff he deserves while laying the groundwork for Wakanda's future in the MCU. In the meantime, though, it's important for the movie to continue taking the health and safety of its cast and crew seriously as it makes its way closer and closer to the finish line.
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" arrives on November 11, 2022.