One of the biggest rumors to emerge during production Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was star Letita Wright’s alleged anti-vaccination status, one that saw her raise the ire of social media users several times over after a couple of questionable posts went viral in the wrong kind of ways.
As tends to be the case anytime the internet latches onto anything, it didn’t take long before even more scuttlebutt began to emerge claiming that she’d could even be denied re-entry onto the set of the Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel once production resumed by law had she not been immunized against COVID-19.
In fact, if it wasn’t for her alleged antivax status, then there arguably wouldn’t be a single shred of backlash being pointed in the actress’ direction, but instead we’ve seen countless trending topics urging Marvel to reconsider having her inherit the titular mantle. In a fairly brazen move, Variety came right out and asked Wakanda Forever producer Nate Moore for his thoughts on the matter, which he handled as well as you’d expect from someone who sat under the Kevin Feige learning tree.
“It’s not a question we asked of anybody, to be quite honest. 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. She only ever was the utmost professional and a joy to have around. She didn’t cost us a moment. I mean, her injury was the thing that cost us, and that was no fault of her own.”
Most interestingly, when the outlet attempted to ask Wright directly about her vaccination status, they were interrupted by her publicist, and then when the questions were submitted to her in writing, they were told that she was too busy to respond. Take from that what you will, then, but it’d be an understatement to say the online world has a very long memory.