Letitia Wright Attempted To Directly Reach Chadwick Boseman After He Died

Chadwick Boseman, who played King T’Challa in “Black Panther,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Avengers: Endgame,” passed away in 2020 from colon cancer after keeping his illness a secret.

When his co-stars found out the news, they were in such shock that they didn't believe it, initially -- including fellow "Black Panther" actress Letitia Wright, who is known for playing Boseman's character's brother, Shuri, in the Marvel film.

Letitia Wright, 29, was featured in Variety's cover story this week, where she opened up about Boseman's death, which came as a shock as no one knew about his colon cancer since he kept it a secret.

“I didn’t put the dots together,” Wright said. “Bro was very private. He wanted to always protect us. That’s all I can say.”

Wright found out about Boseman's death when she woke up in London early in the morning on August 29, 2020. She looked at her phone and saw the words “My condolences,” but had no idea who they were talking about.  “So I was just like, ‘My condolences’ for what? What is this guy talking about?,” she told Variety.

She continued looking at her phones (Wright has two phones, one for the U.K. and one for the U.S.) and found several missed calls, emails, and text messages, all mentioning Boseman’s name. One was from her reps, asking if she wanted to release a statement. However, her mind refused to accept what was happening.

“Is someone trying to play a joke on me?” she asked herself at the time. “This is not a good joke. This is not OK. And I just did the first thing that anybody would do: I called Chad.” There was no answer, so she texted the number: “Hey Bro, it’s Tish. Please pick up.”

Wright then called her “Black Panther” co-star Daniel Kaluuya. “I was like, ‘Yo, I think everybody’s tripping right now. I’m giving you like five seconds to tell me that this is not real,’” Wright explained of what she said at the time. “He was super silent. I was like, ‘OK, fine, if you’re not gonna tell me, I’m going to continue calling Chad until he picks up.’”

When she began calling Boseman's number, Kaluuya said two words that finally hit home for her. “His family …”

For months after Boseman's death, Wright struggled with coping. In fact, she even lost sleep and sent her into what he described as a "downward spiral."

"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," Wright told Variety. "I kind of had to do that by myself."

She continued, "Like, bless Daniel [Kaluuya] — he came to see me and stuff. But it wasn't enough. I wanted to book a flight that day."

A “Black Panther” sequel -- “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” -- will be released this weekend and will star Tenoch Huerta as Namor, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Angela Bassett as Ramonda, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Winston Duke as M’Baku and many others. The first film also starred Chadwick Boseman as King T’Challa/Black Panther and Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger.

The sequel is said to pay tribute to Boseman, but it is unclear exactly how as the film and its script has been kept under wraps.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is set to hits theaters on November 11.