Letitia Wright, star of Black Panther and Steve McQueen’s Mangrove, is facing a backlash after promoting anti-vaccination conspiracy theories on Twitter.
On Thursday night, as The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, and others have documented, the Guyanese-British actress posted a 70-minute video with the all-caps title “COVID-19 VACCINE, SHOULD WE TAKE IT?” The author, Tomi Arayomi, is a self-described “Prophet” whose content spans Christianity, human rights, and conspiracy theories.
“I don’t understand vaccines medically but I’ve always been a little bit of a skeptic of them,” he says towards the beginning of the rambling, fact-free video. Arayomi goes on to explain how RFID chips could be implanted through vaccines, name checks Bill Gates, George Soros, and The Great Reset, and “investigate” whether luciferase — a bioluminescent enzyme found in fireflies that has been used in some coronavirus research — is named after Lucifer. He also takes issue with climate change science, saying, “If we are a contributor, then why not impose a carbon tax on us as human beings for the crime of breathing?”
Wright initially tweeted the video with no comment except a prayer emoji. Her post has since been taken down. But during the ensuing imbroglio she defended herself, writing, “if you don’t conform to popular opinions. but ask questions and think for yourself….you get cancelled.”
Some users attempted to fact check Wright. One person explained that “luciferase is commonly used as a reporter to assess activity in cells… it’s used in research, not the vaccine itself.” Wright responded, “the name lucifer is an interesting choice *opens bible*.”
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By this time she had become a Trending Topic on Twitter, which attracted the attention of some of her fellow Marvel Avengers. “jesus,” Don Cheedle tweeted after watching the video, “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.”
Early Friday morning, Wright deleted her original post and tweeted, “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.”
Wright is expected to reprise the role of Shuri in Black Panther 2, which is set to start filming in July 2021.
if you don’t conform to popular opinions. but ask questions and think for yourself….you get cancelled 😂
— Letitia Wright (@letitiawright) December 4, 2020
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.
— Letitia Wright (@letitiawright) December 4, 2020
the name lucifer is an interesting choice 😞 * opens bible*
— Letitia Wright (@letitiawright) December 4, 2020
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. https://t.co/7uDlP1xwDL
— Don “bruh, you lost” Cheadle (@DonCheadle) December 4, 2020
