A fashionable honor. Letitia Wright paid tribute to Chadwick Boseman at the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever premiere.
The Guyana native, 28, stepped onto the red carpet at the Los Angeles screening on Wednesday, October 26, wearing a stunning Alexander McQueen suit that featured jeweled straps at the shoulders. The actress paired the piece with glossy black loafers and dainty dangling earrings.
If her ensemble feels familiar, it’s because Boseman — who died in August 2020 at age 43 following a private battle with colon cancer — wore a similar getup at the 2018 Oscars.
At the event, the Get On Up actor wowed in a Givenchy Couture suit that featured an elongated coat and tailored pants. As cameras flashed, Boseman did the Wakanda salute. Wright did the same at the film’s premiere on Wednesday.
Fans quickly noticed the nod, sharing their reactions on Twitter. “OH MY GOD,” wrote one social media user alongside side-by-side images of Wright and Boseman in their outfits. A second fan tweeted: “I love the tribute to Chadwick. Very nice.”
“Letitia Wright wearing [the] same outfit as Chadwick Boseman,” a third fan wrote, adding a crying emoji.
Wakanda Forever is the sequel of Black Panther, which premiered in February 2018. In the first film, Wright portrayed Shuri — the brother of Boseman’s T’Challa, King of Wakanda. Following his death, filmmakers revealed how they planned to continue the story without the late actor, sharing that they would not recast the beloved role.
“There’s only one Chadwick and he’s not with us,” Marvel executive Victoria Alonso told Argentinean outlet Clarin in November 2020. “Our king, unfortunately, has died in real life, not just in fiction, and we are taking time to see how we continue the story and what we do to honor this chapter of what has happened to us that was so unexpected, so painful, so terrible, really.”
Director Ryan Coogler echoed similar sentiments. “I know Chad wouldn’t have wanted us to stop,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in March 2021. “He was somebody who was so about the collective. Black Panther, that was his movie. He was hired to play that role before anybody else was even thought of, before I was hired, before any of the actresses were hired.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever premieres on November 11.
