Marvel Studios has reportedly temporarily suspended production on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, in the wake of star Letitia Wright’s on-set injury. The news was broken by The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, and indicates that it is due to the “severity” of Wright’s injury, which occurred in August while filming with a stunt rig on location in Boston. The report indicates that Wright left for London shortly after the injury and the film has been shooting around her character of Shuri, but that the Atlanta production has now filmed all that they can without Wright being on set. The Wrap is indicating that production will shut down the week of Thanksgiving, and will resume in early 2022.
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“She had a little bit of a fall, but it’s not too bad,” co-star Angela Bassett said of Wright in an interview earlier this year. “You know, anything like that will shake you up, but she’s just a little, slight, little petite thing. But she is fine and ready to go.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Foreverย is expected to see the return of Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Angela Bassett as Ramonda, and Martin Freeman as Everett Ross. The film will also featureย the debut of Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams/Ironheart, who is later set to star in her own Disney+ series. Michaela Coel and Tenoch Huerta have also been cast in currently-unknown roles.
It is unclear at this point exactly how prominently Shuri factors into Wakanda Forever, as reports have indicated that she will have a more elevated role following the sudden passing of T’Challa actor Chadwick Boseman last year. Shuri did previously hold the Black Panther mantle in the comics, so some have speculated that she could have a similar fate within the MCU.
Just last month, Wakanda Forever was among the slate of Marvel films to be delayed by several months, alongside Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, The Marvels, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.ย
“It’s production shifts and changes, and because we have so many slots, we can just shift slots,” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told Variety last month. “All the Marvel slots are the same, we’re just shifting when they’re coming out. And yes, Strange [in the Multiverse of Madness] has moved six weeks, so instead of there being three months between Marvel movies, there will be five months between Marvel movies and I think we can all handle that.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to be released on November 11, 2022.
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