Black Panther star Letitia Wright has been hit with claims that she's been sharing anti-vaccine sentiments on the set of the next Marvel movie.
It's not the first time Wright has shared doubts over the vaccine, as she faced backlash in 2020 over a video she posted which questioned the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote that a source on the set of the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever says she has "espoused similar views about the vaccines on the Atlanta production."
Wright, who plays Shuri in the Marvel franchise, parted ways with her U.S. team of representatives in the wake of the controversial video she posted in December.
What has Letitia Wright said about the vaccine?
Wright landed in hot water late last year when she shared a video on social media, discussing the then-upcoming COVID-19 vaccines.
On her Twitter account, Wright shared a 69-minute video from the YouTube channel On The Table, which featured commentary from Tomi Arayomi of the Light London Church. Variety claim that during the video he questioned the legitimacy of the COVID-19 vaccination, made transphobic comments, was sceptical of climate change and accused China of spreading COVID-19.
She shared the video on her Twitter account with the praying hands emoji.
Wright later took down the tweet, and the video was removed for "violating YouTube's terms of service."
After she started to receive criticism on Twitter for posting the video, Wright responded with a tweet saying, "if you don't conform to popular opinions. but ask questions and think for yourself....you get cancelled" followed by a crying laughing emoji.
Eventually after removing her tweet, the next day Wright issued a public statement explaining her reasons for sharing the video. She wrote: "my intention was not to hurt anyone, my ONLY intention of posting the video was it raised my concerns with what the vaccine contains and what we are putting in our bodies. Nothing else."
At the time, fellow Marvel star Don Cheadle, who plays James Rhodes in the franchise, waded in on the debate. He commented on the video she shared saying "jesus... just scrolled through. hot garbage. every time i stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and fkkkd up." Cheadle stopped short of criticising Wright though, saying "i would never defend anybody posting this. but i still won't throw her away over it. the rest i'll take off twitter. had no idea." Cheadle has since deleted this post on Twitter too.
On December 5, the day after she posted the video and received backlash, Wright deleted her Twitter and Instagram accounts. She also parted companies with her U.S. representation soon after the debacle according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jamie Burton is a Newsweek Senior TV and Film Reporter (Interviews) based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
