Black Panther star Letitia Wright was slammed by her Marvel co-star Don Cheadle on Thursday night after she posted a YouTube video that questioned the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The British actress posted the link to the On The Table video ‘COVID-19 VACCINE, SHOULD WE TAKE IT?’ along with a prayer hand emoji late on Thursday night.
Her post immediately sparked a fierce backlash with many asking fellow Marvel actor Don Cheadle to call 27-year-old Wright out for posting the misleading video.
In response, the actor called the video shared by Wright ‘hot garbage’ and what was said in it ‘F****d up.’
After facing a growing backlash, Wright said it was not her intention to make anyone upset and that she wasn’t saying ‘don’t take’ the vaccine, but added ‘I’m just concerned about what’s in it that’s all. Isn’t that fair to question or ask?’
Black Panther star Letitia Wright was mercilessly crucified on Twitter on Thursday night after she posted a fact-free YouTube video that questioned the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine.
After being drawn into the argument on Twitter, Wright’s Marvel Cinematic Universe co-start Don Cheadle (pictured right) criticised the contents of the video shared by Wright, calling it ‘hot garbage’ and ‘F****d up’
On The Table is a YouTube discussion channel. In the video in question, the presenter shared his opinion on vaccines, their effectiveness, the supposed ‘dangers’ of taking them and the origins of the ingredients in the Covid-19 vaccine.
‘I don’t understand vaccines medically, but I’ve always been a little bit of a skeptic of them,’ said presenter Tomi Arayomi, the Hollywood Reporter reports.
He then rolled into a monologue full of personal anecdotes and his personal feelings on vaccines in general.
After sharing the video, Wright quickly became involved in arguments with other Twitter users admonishing her for sharing the video, in their view irresponsibly.
Wright, who has over 360,000 followers on Twitter, defended her sharing of the video by saying she believed it is important to ‘ask questions’ about the vaccine.
‘I think it’s valid and fair to simply ask what’s in it,’ she replied to one user who was calling her out on the platform.
Wright shared a video from YouTube discussion channel ‘On The Table’ in which the presenter said ‘I don’t understand vaccines medically’ before rolling into a fact-free monologue full of personal anecdotes and his personal feelings on vaccines in general
After facing criticism on Twitter, Wright said that it was not her intention to make anyone upset, but said she was concerned about what’s in the Covid-19 vaccine. ‘Isn’t that a fair question to ask?’
After being drawn into the Twitter row, Wright’s Marvel co-star Don Cheadle called the video ‘hot garbage’ and what was said in it ‘F****d up’
Further doubling-down on her position following more criticism, she said ‘if you don’t conform to popular opinions. but ask questions and think for yourself….you get cancelled.’
As the argument grew on Thursday and into Friday, Wright’s Marvel Cinematic Universe co-star Don Cheadle waded into the debate.
Cheadle is known to be outspoken on politics and other issues, and when Twitter users began tagging him in Wright’s post, he began to engage with users as well.
After watching sections of the YouTube video, Cheadle Tweeted: ‘Jesus… just scrolled through. hot garbage. every time i stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and f****d 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.’
Wright, who in addition to Black Panther and the Marvel movies has starred in Death on the Nile, Black Mirror and who is currently starring in Steve McQueen’s acclaimed Small Axe, faced wider backlash on Twitter as well.
Actor and musician Alex Sawyer replied to her tweet sharing the video, saying ‘This is a frustratingly irresponsible use of a platform.’
‘How so?,’ Wright replied. ‘Did you listen to it fully or jump to conclusions on how I use my platform?’
Canadian filmmaker and YouTuber Evan Hadfield poked fun at Wright’s tweet, saying ‘I for one am proud of you, it takes guts to go on the internet and blast to millions that you intend to kill people because you think doctors know less about medicine than my one weird aunt.’
Another user shared a picture that said ‘I did my own research’ with the footnote: ‘Watched someone else’s s**tty YouTube video.’
Other users pointed to host Tomi Arayomi’s previous comments on the channel that have been perceived to be transphobic, with Wright’s fans questioning why she would share a video with someone who has expressed such views in the past.
