In "things we didn't know we needed but now definitely need" news, Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong'o have a new project in the works — one in which they will play an extraordinary mother-daughter team.
According to Deadline, Nyong'o and Davis will star together in The Woman King, an upcoming film about the women who rose up to defend their people in West Africa's Kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century. Davis will play Nanisca, the general of an all-women military unit and Nyong'o will play her daughter, Nawi. Together, the two women fight against the forces threatening their way of life.
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Producer Cathy Schulman cited Black Panther as a source of encouragement to tell the story of The Woman King now.
"Black Panther just showed us how the power of imagination and lore could reveal a world without gender and racial stereotypes," Schulman told Deadline. "The Woman King will tell one of history’s greatest forgotten stories from the real world in which we live, where an army of African warrior women staved off slavery, colonialism and inter-tribal warfare to unify a nation."
In real life, Nyong'o and Davis are also fighting back against inequality with their activism. Davis, who gave a powerful speech at the Los Angeles Women's March about intersectionality in feminism, recently spoke out about actresses of color not receiving the same pay as their white peers. Nyong'o recently shared her own personal story in the wake of the #MeToo movement and stood with the Time's Up initiative.
The Woman King won't be the only place to see Davis and Nyong'o on the big screen. Davis, who continues to portray Annalise Keating on ABC's How To Get Away With Murder, will appear in Steve McQueen's film Widows, out later this year. It was recently announced that Nyong'o will portray Trevor Noah's real-life mother in an adaptation of his autobiography, Born A Crime.
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