Marvel’s ‘Black Panther 2’ Could Be In The Hands of a Crazy Anti-Vaxxer

Since the untimely death of Chadwick Boseman, there has been a lot of speculation as to how Marvel Studios would handle Black Panther 2 without the first film’s star. The leading theory seemed to be that Shuri, the younger sister of Boseman’s T’Challa, would take up the mantle of Black Panther in the sequel.

Unfortunately for Marvel, Shuri was played by Letitia Wright and she just had to delete her social media accounts after she revealed to the world she’s one of those anti-vaccination lunatics.

Wright tweeted a video by notable anti-vaxxer Tomi Arayomi and replied to critical responses with “You have every right to ask questions about what goes into your body and ask questions until you feel you are ready.”

And it is normal to be somewhat skeptical about new vaccines and medicines if you’re not confident they’ve properly tested. Even vaccines that aren’t rushed to market can sometimes have serious side effects for some of the people who take them. These are relatively rare occurrences, though, and the potential COVID vaccines being developed are being tested for safety by government agencies in multiple countries.

Wright went on to say “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.” She presumably added this to stress that she just doesn’t believe in modern medicine and wanted to distance herself from the transphobic comments made in the video.

Wright eventually gave up and deleted her social media accounts because “I’m not transphobic, I just want you to die from preventable diseases” isn’t a super popular position in the middle of a pandemic.

Wright called out cancel culture, saying “If you don’t conform to popular opinions. but ask questions and think for yourself….you get canceled.” By “popular opinions,” she means science.

Don Cheadle, who plays War Machine in Marvel’s Iron Man and Avengers films, called the video Wright tweeted “hot garbage”  and said “Every time I stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and fkkkd up,” but added he wouldn’t “throw [Wright] away” over it, which is a reasonable stance.

Disney is famously averse to conflict, so one does wonder if this would change any plans Marvel may have had to make Shuri the star of Black Panther 2. If anything they should torpedo that idea because Shuri isn’t really a strong enough character to headline a film; no one wants to see the movie where James Bond does and Q sets off in his stead.