Letitia Wright Opens Up About ‘Tough’ Week Reflecting on 5 Years Since Chadwick Boseman’s Death

NEED TO KNOW

• Letitia Wright wrote on Instagram that the end of August “is a tough one” every year, as the fifth anniversary of Chadwick Boseman’s death approaches

• Wright, who portrays Boseman’s onscreen younger sister in the Black Panther movies, wrote that it is “always a time of reflection, taking time to appreciate the beautiful soul of my brother”

• Boseman died of cancer at 43 on Aug. 28, 2020, leaving many of his colleagues and friends in Hollywood shocked

Letitia Wright is remembering her late Black Panther costar Chadwick Boseman ahead of the fifth anniversary of his death at 43.

Wright, who plays the character Shuri in the Black Panther movies, shared a collection of photos of Boseman during his college years at Howard University on her Instagram Stories Monday, Aug. 25.

She wrote a message over a photo of the sun setting from what appeared to be a train cabin window. “This week. Every year since 2020. Is a tough one,” Wright wrote. “But always a time of reflection, taking time to appreciate the beautiful soul of my brother.”

Boseman, the actor who achieved superstar status by playing the T’Challa, a.k.a. the Black Panther, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe during the late 2010s, died of colon cancer on Aug. 28, 2020.

Few people, even those whom Boseman worked with on his movies, knew that the actor had received a stage-III colon cancer diagnosis in 2016 until his family announced his death, leaving his Black Panther costars shocked by the news.

Wright has spoken publicly about how hard Boseman’s death hit her over the years. In a November 2022 Variety interview to promote the Black Panther sequel Wakanda Forever, Wright admitted she experienced a “downward spiral” in the wake of Boseman’s death, particularly because she was not able to travel to the U.S. for Boseman’s private memorial service due to the pandemic. 

“It haunted me for months that I couldn’t say goodbye to him or be around my Black Panther family to share in that moment,” she said at the time. “I kind of had to do that by myself. Like, bless Daniel [Kaluuya] — he came to see me and stuff. But it wasn’t enough. I wanted to book a flight that day.”

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In an interview with NBC Nightly News released around the same time, Wright said “emotions [were] really raw” surrounding the sequel’s release.

Wakanda Forever saw Wright’s character Shuri eventually take on T’Challa’s role as the Black Panther following T’Challa’s sudden death. Though the series’ director Ryan Coogler has said that he will make Black Panther 3 — and cast Denzel Washington in a major role — the franchise’s future is unclear as of now.

After Wakanda Forever, Wright most recently appeared on the big screen in the 2023 movie Surrounded. She is among the returning MCU cast members in the next Avengers film, Doomsday, which is currently in production and scheduled to release Dec. 18, 2026.

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