‘Black Panther’ Actress Letitia Wright Aspires to Glorify God through Cinema

Marvel star actress Letitia Wright says in a new interview that her new production company aims to make movies with meaningful content and cinematically excellent productions, ensuring that “God gets glorified for it.” Wright, who is best known for her roles in Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, launched 3.16 Productions in 2020 and has helped make several films, including the new Angel Studios movie Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (PG-13). Wright is an executive producer. 

The movie recounts the inspiring true story of a pastor and his family who adopted two children out of the foster care system, igniting an adoption movement in their small community of Possum Trot, Texas, where 22 families come together to adopt a total of 77 difficult-to-place children.

“I was intrigued with the story and just the sacrifice of this family for kids,” Wright told The Relevant Podcast. 

Too often, Wright said, movies fall short in either excellence or impact. Sound of Hope, she said, clears the bar in both categories. 

“I try to keep the motto, or the ethos, of stories that have meaningful content with cinematic excellence,” she said of her production company. 

She follows God’s lead for her company’s films.

“As long as it has meaningful content and cinematic excellence … God just guides me on how I need to do it,” Wright said.

Although Sound of Hope is not a Christian movie in the traditional sense, it is filled with faith content. The movie received an A+ CinemaScore from moviegoers and a “fresh” rating from Rotten Tomatoes, where 79 percent of critics liked it. 

Wright acknowledged that she typically does not enjoy Christian movies. 

“I’ve never really found movies that felt predominantly like, super, super Christian to be quite good,” she said. “It’s been poorly executed. And that’s kind of a shame because we all carry the Holy Spirit. And then it’s like, ‘Why does the film look like that?’”

But Wright, a Christian herself, hopes to help change the perception of faith-focused movies. She pointed to The Chosen as an example of well-executed faith content.

The tide is turning, she said, with filmmakers “really leaning into the Holy Spirit and really executing it well.” 

“[The Chosen] did it with absolute excellence, and they have a huge following,” she said. 

“What I feel is happening [among faith-focused filmmakers],” she told The Relevant Podcast, “it’s just like meaningful content with cinematic excellence. And then God gets glorified for it. Because honestly, if you make something as kind of rubbish, nobody wants to see that. …But if someone says, like, this is beautiful, and they’re Christian, like, I want to watch that.”

Related: 3 Things You Should Know before Watching ‘Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot’

WATCH: Sound Of Hope: The Story Of Possum Trot | Carry You Trailer | Angel Studios

Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Paras Griffin/Stringer

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.