UPDATED: So, there has been some confusion surrounding the current state of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s production. In the THR article, it was included with the statement that “production was set to restart this week” without a confirmation it was able to do so. It’s uncertain if this was a statement based on old information, but The Direct’s Jack McBryan has offered an update stating that production is currently underway:
While he mentions something that happened earlier this month, the implication is on a report from January 14th – last week – by THR. It’s when the production wasn’t able to restart as planned that Monday and includes the reference to the cast and crew, as well as Lupita Nyong’o, contacting COVID. At the time, the report was accidentally overlooked, which is why the latest entry was mistakenly written as the first update on her condition. For now, it seems that the latest THR piece published on the 18th may have been based on old information, or they were able to restart today. No matter if they did or not, hopefully everyone affected by COVID was able to recover.
It seems like just a few days ago, we were reporting that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was able to start up production again after a long vacation break so that Letitia Wright‘s severe injury can heal. Sadly, it seems that in a new piece by The Hollywood Reporter the production was forced to close down again, as cast and crew members were tested positive for COVID. It was originally going to start up production this week again, which will once again face further delays. Among those tested positive is also one of its stars Lupita Nyong’o.
This news is sadly becoming common once again, as Star Trek Picard also was closed down after over 50 people involved with the production were tested positive. As a result of this rise in numbers, it seems a new deal was struck for new COVID-19 safety protocols to ensure that this cannot happen further with the spread of the Omicron variant.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
