Will Letitia Wright be dropped from 'Black Panther 2'? Star deletes social media after anti-vaccine video backlash
Actress Letitia Wright has deleted all her social media accounts after receiving a ton of backlash for posting an anti-vaccination video in relation to coronavirus. The 'Black Panther' star discretely deleted both her Instagram and Twitter accounts on Saturday, December 5. 'Sorry, this page isn't available,' read her old Instagram account, which boasted 2.1 million followers, while Twitter said her account no longer exists.
The 27-year-old had shared a link to a YouTube video on December 2 that questioned if people should take the Covid-19 vaccine, right before UK planned the roll-out of vaccines. The clip she shared was from On The Table - a YouTube channel presented by Tomi Arayomi, a law graduate whose mother is a dentist and father is a doctor. He says his ministry 'seeks to restore the ability to hear the voice of God to every person on every sphere of influence.' Arayomi, however, also admitted he has no medicinal understanding of vaccines. The description of his YouTube video says, “Tonight I'm talking about Luciferase, the ingredient allegedly being added to the COVID vaccine to detect those who have not taken it. Luciferase, named by its founder after Lucifer???”
Luciferase is a photoluminescent enzyme that glows when exposed to light of a certain wavelength. It has been suggested it could be used in vaccines in developing countries to detect who has already been vaccinated. Lucifer is also Greek for light-bringer. Luciferase is not used in vaccines deployed in the US, UK, Europe and countries with developed health care systems. He also asks whether any coronavirus vaccine that contains animal DNA will turn people into human-animal 'chimeras', a 'half-human, a half- animal creature' that he says appears in the Bible.
Arayomi further questions whether metal contained in the vaccine will create antennas inside the body that pick up 5G signals and says 'this could be true'. Wright shared the video with the 'praying hands' emoji, but offered no other comment. Fans immediately accused her of spreading false and potentially dangerous content that could bolster misinformation. Worldwide, Covid-19 has infected more than 66 million people and killed 1.5million.
Pfizer–BioNTech has been approved for use in the United Kingdom and will begin distribution in the coming week. The FDA is still reviewing a vaccine for the US. The actress then went back-and-forth with fans as she attempted to defend herself over the video. In response to the backlash, Wright said in a now-deleted tweet, which was posted on December 4: “If you don’t conform to popular opinions. But ask questions and think for yourself… you get cancelled.” The Guyanese-British actor, best known for playing tech genius Shuri in the Marvel Cinematic Universe also liked Twitter posts that called for the 'Black Panther' sequel to be canceled and her role to be re-cast. “I think it's valid and fair to simply ask what's in it,” Wright replied to one user who was calling her out on the platform.
She doubled-down on her stance soon after, writing on Friday, “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.” All three tweets were deleted before Wright's social media accounts were wiped out.
Wright also received scrutiny from co-star Don Cheadle. “Jesus... just scrolled through. hot garbage. every time i stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and fkkkd up. i would never defend anybody posting this. but i still won't throw her away over it. the rest i'll take off twitter. had no idea,” wrote Don.
NHS doctor and BAFTA award-winning TV presenter Ranj Singh commented: ''‘Lucifer’ means light-bearer in Latin & Theology (as you probably know). Luciferases are enzymes that glow under certain conditions and are really useful in medical science. They literally produce light. This has precisely NOTHING to do with religion I’m afraid.”
Wright had been slated to take on a more prominent role in the 'Black Panther' sequel following the death of the Marvel hit’s star Chadwick Boseman earlier this year. She liked other tweets that read ‘cancel Black Panther 2 immediately’ and ‘nah she needs to be recast’, appearing to answer to her earlier claims that people are instantly 'canceled'.
Marvel Studios and Disney have not yet commented on the controversy or on whether they will act on calls for Wright to be replaced.