Angela Bassett promises that her “Black Panther” co-star and on-screen daughter Letitia Wright is “fine and ready to go” following a “minor accident” while filming the sequel last month.
The “911” star attended the 73rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 19, where she presented the award to “The Queen’s Gambit” for Best Limited Series. While walking the red carpet, the legendary actress gave “ET” host Nichelle Turner a short and sweet update on the filming progress of “Black Panther 2,” including the current status of her co-star Letitia Wright, who plays her daughter Shuri in the movies and was hospitalized for minor injuries on-set in August due to an incident with a stunt rig.
“She had a little bit of a fall, but it’s not too bad,” the “What’s Love Got to Do With It” actress told Turner. “You know, anything like that will shake you up. She’s just a little, slight, little petite thing. But she is fine and ready to go.”
Many of the film’s original cast and crew are returning to the second installment of the “Black Panther” saga, and although she’s excited about the reunion, Bassett noted that the absence of Chadwick Boseman, who starred as T’Challa in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films until his death in 2020, still weighs on all involved.
“We’re excited about that. Of course, we still have a little, you know, we feel some kind of way in our heart, of course,” she said. “So every day is just a testament and a love fest for our dear [Chadwick Boseman].”
Among the returning crew are director Ryan Coogler and writer Joe Robert Cole, both of whom Bassett promises are doing all they can to replicate the greatness achieved by the first film in the upcoming installment.
“You know, we still have Ryan [Coogler] and Joe Robert Cole, who wrote ‘Black Panther’ 1, so the two of them, these men, these brothers, they’re going to bring it,” she vowed. “They love ‘Black Panther,’ they love what they started. As they say, ‘Finish the way you started.’ They started great, and they’re going to do this one well as well.”
“Black Panther” broke numerous box office records following its 2018 release, including becoming the highest-grossing film directed by a Black filmmaker, the ninth-highest-grossing film of all time, and the second-highest-grossing film of that year with over $1.3 billion, behind fellow Marvel film “Avengers: Infinity War.”
