Letitia Wright's flirtation with the anti-vax movement has hurt her career. Photo / Supplied
Letitia Wright's flirtation with the anti-vax movement has hurt her career. Photo / Supplied
Have anti-vaxxers managed to do what some of the greatest villains in comic book history failed to do – and killed off Black Panther?
The Marvel movie franchise seemed destined to lead the way after the original movie won over fans and critics and even scored Academy Award nominations.
Letitia Wright's flirtation with the anti-vax movement has hurt her career. Photo / Supplied
Then came the tragic news that star Chadwick Boseman had died from cancer. However, plans to push on with a Black Panther 2 were still on the drawing board, with T'Challa's sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) tipped to take over as Black Panther.
A Marvel movie with a black female lead? Success seemed assured – until this week.
Wright has been forced to delete her social media accounts after deciding to post a 70-minute anti-vaxxer video.
As well as attempting to persuade people not to take the Covid-19 vaccine, it apparently threw in transphobic comments for good measure.
I say apparently as the video itself has been removed from YouTube for violating its terms of service, so it's impossible to check.
Wright faced a massive fan backlash. After initially defending her right to post the video and claiming people were trying to "cancel" her, she shut down her Twitter and Instagram accounts.
"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," she wrote.
Letitia Wright plays T'Challa's sister Shuri in Black Panther. Photo / Supplied
That's classic anti-vaxxer talk. Contrast it with the opinion of fellow Marvel star Don Cheadle, who plays War Machine.
"Jesus … hot garbage. Every time I stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and fkkkd up," Cheadle wrote of the video.
So that's just great. Now Wright has ensured any future publicity will include a barrage of questions about her anti-vaxxer views – at a time when a virus is slaughtering Americans on a scale only imagined by a supervillain.
Sure, Marvel may not have made Wright into the next Black Panther and instead cast another black male actor in the role of T'Challa. But given the push for more gender diversity in movie casting, the temptation to have her step into the role must have been irresistible.
Particularly as Shuri has become Black Panther in the comics as well.
Now, Black Panther might have to recast both roles. That means even more delays and, worse, a loss of continuity.
Even if they continue with her, gambling that people will have forgotten this hideous lack of judgment by the time the sequel is finally out, the franchise is tainted.
I, for one, will be unable to sit there watching Shuri demonstrate a new and brilliant piece of Vibranium-inspired technology without thinking: "But you don't believe in science!"
Why do actors do it? If they have deluded views, why can't they keep them to themselves?
Honestly, this virus has been deadly to actors. If they're not posting tone-deaf videos complaining how tough life is inside their mansions, they are revealing their wacky ideas on social media.
Luckily, I have a solution. Wright is going to have to come out and say she was under the mind control of a supervillain and then show herself being given the Covid-19 vaccine to prove it is safe.
Then her onscreen mother Angela Bassett can give her a telling-off for being so silly.
And while it may be a bit embarrassing, she owes it to the late Chadwick Boseman. After all, it may be the only way to save the Black Panther.
