Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the sequel to the 2018 Marvel film Black Panther, has temporarily shut down production as actor Letitia Wright who plays the fictional superheroe Shuri in the film, continues to recover from injury.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, shooting might not resume until 2022 and the shutdown is expected to begin from the last week of November.
“Letitia has been recovering in London since September from injuries sustained on the set of Black Panther 2 and is looking forward to returning to work early 2022,” a representative for Wright said in a statement to THR. “Letitia kindly asks that you keep her in your prayers,” the representative added.
Wright, who plays Shuri, the tech-savvy sister of T’Challa, injured herself first in August while shooting for a sequence involving a stunt rig on-location in Boston. At the time, Marvel Studios said Wright’s injury would ultimately not impact the shooting schedule of the film.
After this, she was back in London for the film’s shoot.
In order to reconfigure the shoot and get things back on track, Director Ryan Coogler, will be stepping in from early 2022 start.
Actor, writer, and director Michaela Coel, who won the Emmys for writing the show I May Destroy You has been brought on board in July.
Black Panther, set in Wakanda, is one of the biggest Marvel films with a box-office collection of $1.34 billion worldwide. It featured late actor Chadwick Boseman alongside Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, and others.
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MCU and director Ryan Coogler had planned to begin production on the sequel in March 2021. The plan was put aside after Boseman’s demise of colon cancer on August 28, 2020.
In an earlier statement, Marvel said the sequel would continue to honour the legacy of Boseman and his portrayal of King T’Challa, and the studio would not recast the character. Rather, the sequel “will continue to explore the incomparable world of Wakanda and all of the rich and varied characters introduced in the first film.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is scheduled to release on November 11, 2022.