Black Panther: Wakanda Forever features a phenomenal performance from Letitia Wright. Throughout the sequel, she takes Shuri on an emotional journey that sees the young genius go from mourning her brother to becoming the new Black Panther.
Many critics have failed to highlight Wright's work, likely as a result of the controversy surrounding the actress following a series of divisive social media posts. As you may recall, it was in late 2020 that she first came under fire after sharing a video that questioned the legitimacy of the COVID-19 vaccine.
As well as reportedly spreading misinformation, the video linked back to a YouTube channel that questioned how real climate change is, accused China of spreading COVID, and even included transphobic and homophobic verbiage. Wright didn't come out of that looking good, though she did apologise and quickly deleted her Twitter account.
Still, that did nothing to stem the backlash against Wright, with many fans demanding that she be fired from the Black Panther sequel.
Not helping matters was the fact we later heard reports about the actress spreading her views on set, while her vaccination status was also said to be in doubt. Now, though, it appears as if a lot of that information was incorrect as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's director and cast have argued against those claims.
The Guardian recently spoke with Wright and asked if she feared being cancelled for sharing her views. "I feel it’s something I experienced two years ago and I have in a healthy way moved on. And in a healthy way I’ve apologised and deleted my Twitter. I just apologised for any hurt that was caused to anybody."
"That’s exactly what my apology was. It was saying this is not me, and I apologise." The site continued to push Wright to elaborate on whether she shares those transphobic and homophobic views, to which she responded, "Those are things that I am not and I apologised and I’ve moved on."
So, has she been vaccinated? "I have apologised and I have moved on. Next question. Thanks."
It does feel like we should move on from this now, and questions like these hopefully won't continue to plague Wright for the rest of her career. She did a fantastic job as the new Black Panther, so here's hoping Shuri is a role the actress gets to return to soon.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now playing in theaters.