Peculiar stuff going on down in Atlanta on the set of the Black Panther sequel, “Wakanda Forever.”
They’ve reportedly shut down production for the the time being because actress Letitia Wright sustained an injury while shooting in Boston at the end of August.
It is now the beginning of November, more than two months have passed since Wright’s unspecified injury was termed “minor” by the production. At the time they said she was briefly hospitalized but she was fine and had returned to work.
That was almost ten weeks ago.
Wright became notorious last December and again recently not because of her injury but because of her anti-vaccination stand. At the beginning of October there was a report from the set in The Hollywood Reporter that Wright espoused anti-vaccine thoughts on set. She went on to deny that on her Instagram page October 13th.
Almost a year ago, in early December 2020, before the vaccine was available was just in discussion, Wright posted a clip titled “COVID-19 Vaccine, Should We Take It?” from Light London Church leader Tomi Arayomi’s YouTube channel, “On the Table.”
The 69-minute video — which has since been removed from YouTube and Wright’s Twitter feed — sees Arayomi making transphobic remarks, stating several unfounded claims blaming China for the pandemic, downplaying the threat of climate change and discouraging people from getting vaccinated for the flu and COVID-19.
Wright Tweeted: “[I]f you don’t conform to popular opinions. but ask questions and think for yourself….you get cancelled.” She included a crying-laughing emoji.
Shutting an entire production down for a ten week old minor injury seems highly unusual. Atlanta, as I well know, has had a lot of unreported COVID trouble on sets. Earlier this fall, I reported that actor Colin Firth had contracted COVID on the set of his HBO mini series, “The Staircase.” He was laid up for two weeks after a driver faked a vaccine card. Everyone around the production worked to cover up what happened, but I was able to verify it again.
“Wakanda Forever” is a Disney-Marvel production. Disney now has a strict vaccine mandate for all cast and crew on all productions. This has resulted in the ousting of actor Emilio Estevez from the Disney Plus series, “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers” because he refused to be vaccinated. (His father, Martin Sheen, must be reeling from this insanity.) This has also led to upheaval on ABC’s soap, “General Hospital,” which is said to be offloading two big cast members over the same thing.
So what is really going on with “Wakanda Forever”? If you know anything, please email me in confidence at showbiz411@gmail.com. If it’s just a back spasm that’s shut down a $200 million movie, so be it.
There’s an internal cliffhanger going on at ABC’s soap “General Hospital.” Two stars of the show may be on their way out.
“General Hospital” has been a set with a lot of vaccination turmoil. Actress Nancy Lee Grahn, who also just celebrated her 25th anniversary with the show, more or less shamed ABC into mandating vaccines on the soap. It was Grahn who blew the whistle a few weeks ago that someone on the set wasn’t vaccinated and though she never named names, it was obviously Rademacher. Then on October 8th she wrote:
Everyone is freaking out right now about Packers QB Aaron Rodgers. He has COVID -19. He lied about being vaccinated in August.
Welcome, Neil Phillips.