‘Black Panther 2’ Shuts Down Production As Letitia Wright Recovers From Injury
The much-anticipated Black Panther sequel has been in production since June and it was expected to wrap later this month. But then the shoot hit a snag when Letitia Wright, who plays the Marvel superhero Shuri, injured herself during a stunt gone wrong while the movie was on location in Boston.
At the time, Marvel said that Wright “sustained minor injuries” in the incident, and she was released from the hospital not long after. But now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the entire production is temporarily shutting down because Wright reportedly never returned to the set after the accident and director Ryan Coogler has shot everything else in the movie but the scenes involving Shuri.
More, via THR:
After the injury, Wright left for London, where the star has been since, while the production shot around her character of Shuri, the sister of Black Panther T’Challa ... Wakanda Forever had been filming mostly in Atlanta for the last two months. Director Ryan Coogler is said to have shot all footage that his crew is able to without filming Wright’s scenes.
The report claims that Marvel expects the film to resume production in early 2022, a fact backed up by a comment from Wright’s spokesperson, who told THR that the actress is “looking forward to returning to work early 2022.”
If all that is correct, that won’t give Coogler and his team much wiggle room to finish the movie. After a recent delay, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is currently scheduled to open in theaters on November 11, 2022. That gives them less than a year to shoot Shuri’s scenes and all of their special effects.