Letitia Wright: Your Guide To The Marvel Star

Actor Letitia Wright has made a name for herself in Hollywood thanks to her brilliant work. After landing several smaller television roles on shows like "Chasing Shadows," Humans," "Doctor Who," and "Black Mirror," she snagged a career-changing part in Marvel's "Black Panther" starring as King T'Challa's sister, Shuri. Now she is back with the franchise lighting up the screen in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." At just under 30 years old, Wright is really only getting started, and while she might not know what lies ahead of her Marvel movie career, those who have been around the entertainment business block a time or two know that Wright is something extraordinary. Michael Caton-Jones, the director who discovered 16-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio, knew Wright was destined for greatness immediately. "I've not felt like this about someone since Leonardo. I've had plenty of really good actors, but I just go on my instinct. My instinct is she can be as big as she wants. Letitia is just gobsmackingly brilliant. The camera loves her. She has an emotional honesty," he explained to The Guardian.

"Gobsmacking brilliant," self-assured and grounded, and supremely stunning are all qualities the Guyanese-born actor possesses. The world is her oyster for sure, and whatever she decides to do next, we are definitely here for it, but in the meantime, we will binge on all things "Black Panther" and learn everything there is to know about this captivating young lady.

So many of Tinseltown's young actors have seasoned vets they look up to for motivation and inspiration. Actor Letitia Wright will forever recall seeing a young Keke Palmer perform in "Akeelah and the Bee." From then on, she knew she was destined to be a part of the acting realm. Wright told The Hollywood Reporter that Palmer's character in "Akeelah and the Bee" was around the same age as Wright when she first saw the film. The character's quest for knowledge and vast curiosity were traits Wright immediately connected with, and Wright couldn't help but be inspired.

Wright wasn't only drawn to the parallels between herself and Palmer's character. She also knew she wanted to bring something different to the big screen and showcase an underrepresented part of the acting population. While she had decided to set forth and become a powerhouse actor, she still had to sell her education-driven parents on the master plan. Wright told Vanity Fair, "In my country where I was born, Guyana, we push more for education. ... It's more being a lawyer, doctor, teacher, or scientist. So it was something I had to just really prove — not only to myself, but to my parents, that I could do it, and I can make a living from it, and that I was kind of good at it."

It's fair to say she has made a believer out of her parents and the rest of the world. 

Some actors can't help but throw everything they have into a role. Sometimes the massive efforts result in a performance of a lifetime, but other times they result in injury. Every now and again, an actor's on-set moves produce a killer performance and an injury. Letitia Wright knows this all too well. When working on "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," Wright suffered a concussion and a fractured shoulder from an incident with a stunt rig. "Letitia Wright sustained minor injuries today while filming a stunt for 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.' She is currently receiving care in a local hospital and is expected to be released soon," a spokesperson for Marvel said (via Deadline). 

The injury was initially not expected to halt film production, and Wright recuperated in London while filming continued across the pond in Boston. After two months of Wright being absent from the movie project, however, production did end up pressing pause in November 2021 and staying shut down until 2022, so Wright could continue gathering the strength needed to reprise her role. After five long months, she suited up as Shuri again and finished the film. 

Her body found its way back to fighting shape, but healing her mind proved to be a different story. Per Variety, Wright continued to process her accident even after the bumps and bruises were long gone, saying she worked through the incident via therapy. 

Letitia Wright is quite a catch. She is young, stunning, and talented, and frankly, any human being would be lucky to have her as a romantic partner. While she hasn't settled down with anyone, she has indicated she is wide open when it comes to love. In speaking to The Independent, Wright said, "I think it's a pure and beautiful thing to be like, 'I'm gonna wait for love. I'm gonna wait and save myself for the right person.'" Wright has a bit of an old-fashioned take on finding her forever person, especially compared to others her age who rely on digital dating experiences. Per Dazed, Wright explained, "I just need to meet the one person that's for me, and that's it. Done. I don't need to do all that website stuff."

Though dating apps are not her thing, she told The Independent more power to those who use them to help find connections. Until she settles down with the person who completes her, she is content in the friendships of her co-stars that function more like family. "I see Danny (Daniel) Kaluuya as an older brother and Malachi Kirby. I see Naomie Harris as an older sister. Danai Gurira, I see as an amazing older sister. Definitely, Chadwick represented being my brother," she revealed to Dazed.

Losing someone you love changes you forever. People learn to carry on, but the void left by the passing of a special person never heals completely. Letitia Wright knows this, as does the rest of her "Black Panther" family. She, the late Chadwick Boseman, and others grew extremely close when filming their first movie together. Wright has even referred to Boseman as her older brother and a lifelong (platonic) love, not simply as a friend and co-star. She told Cassius Life, "I was very, very confident that he would be my big brother from the moment I met him. Sipping on his smoothie, looking at me up and down, sizing me up, I was like, 'you finna be my big brother.'" 

As close as they were, Wright didn't know everything about her friend. For example, she didn't know how he had been battling a severe illness. "I didn't put the dots together," Wright told Variety in reference to Boseman's colon cancer battle. "Bro was very private. He wanted to always protect us." 

In fact, Wright explained to Variety that when condolences regarding Boseman's death started rolling in, she thought it was a warped joke. It sent Wright into "a downward spiral," and, while she couldn't bring her friend back, she has found ways to honor him. This includes her work in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" and walking the purple carpet in an outfit that resembled one Boseman himself wore to the Oscars.

Letitia Wright can act up a storm, that is for certain. Transforming into various characters for the cameras isn't this talented lady's only ace in the hole, however. It seems Wright has some mad rap skills on top of her obvious acting skills. On more than one occasion, Wright has showcased her lyric-spitting skills for the world, wowing crowds with her quick and intelligent lines. Actor and pal Lupita Nyong'o shouted Wright out on Twitter, praising her rap game and calling her out by her alter ego, Baby MC Underbite. Wright also showed Jimmy Fallon, host of "The Tonight Show," that she can pretty much string any random words (in her case "disco," "Red Lobster," and "vibranium") together to create a freestyle rap. 

She also shared her secret talent with the world when she appeared on "Live With Kelly and Ryan." Host Kelly Ripa told Wright she had heard that Wright was a serious rapper. Wright claimed there was no way she was legit, but what started out as messing around with friends and co-stars on set — spitting freestyle lines out between takes — has turned into something bigger than it was ever intended to be. Wright said she even gets big-time rap artists critiquing her rapping. 

At the end of the day, the actor is adamant her rapping is no new spinoff career, just good-natured fun with a hidden talent.