Black Panther star Letitia Wright may have previously expressed hesitancy about getting vaccinated for COVID-19, but she’s still starring in the highly anticipated sequel to the Oscar-winning 2018 film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The trade publication’s Heat Vision newsletter on Friday dispelled rumors reported Thursday by another outlet that Wright didn’t want to return to the set of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever due to her alleged refusal to get vaccinated.
Wright is expected to reprise her role as the brave and brainy Princess Shuri in the Black Panther sequel. The rumor suggesting otherwise made the 28-year-old, Guyanese-born British actress a trending topic on Twitter on Thursday.
The movie’s production crew stopped filming in November for just over two months after Wright sustained an injury on-set and was temporarily hospitalized. Deadline reported in late August that Wright received minor injuries during a stunt rig accident while filming Wakanda Forever in Boston.
THR confirmed over the weekend that Wakanda Forever will resume filming next month.
“We did some digging and sources close to the production say Panther 2 is indeed on track to resume production in late January in Atlanta. With Wright,” THR’s Heat Vision newsletter reported on Friday.
Representatives for Wright and Walt Disney Co., the parent company for Marvel Studios, which is producing Wakanda Forever, did not immediately respond Monday to requests for comment from theGrio.
It’s been more than a year since Wright went viral for tweeting a YouTube video questioning the legitimacy of COVID-19 vaccines before deleting her social media accounts after receiving backlash online.
In October, THR reported Wright expressed negative feelings about COVID-19 vaccines while filming in Atlanta. Wright later denied those claims on Instagram before deleting her IG account once again.
The first Black Panther movie earned more than $1.3 billion globally and remains the fourth highest-grossing film of all-time domestically, per BoxOfficeMojo. The blockbuster featuring Wright, the late Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, and a predominantly Black cast became a cultural phenomenon in 2018, earning three Academy Awards and a Best Picture nomination in the process.
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