Nyong’o, Gurira forced to exit series ‘Americanah’
Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o was “forced” to exit the HBO Max 10-episode series Americanah she was planning to star in and executive produce with her Black Panther gal pal Danai Gurira.
“Americanah was originally meant to start shooting earlier this year, but the production dates were pushed back due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” an insider told Variety last week. “Nyong’o then had to drop out as it conflicted with other projects on her schedule.”
The Mexican-born, Kenyanraised 37-year-old was supposed to play Ifemelu, a Nigerian woman, who moves to the United States for college and discovers “for the first time with what it means to be black”.
The Iowa-born, Zimbabweraised 42-year-old Gurira not only adapted Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2013 novel for the 2021 series, she was also supposed to head up the project as show runner.
It was a passion project for the SA G Award-winning duo, whose Americanah went from a film idea to an actual TV series over the last six years.
Lupita and Danai previously scored Tony Awards nominations in 2016 for their Broadway drama Eclipsed, which starred Nyong’o and was written by Gurira.
The talented two-some had already cast their ensemble featuring Uzo Aduba, Corey Hawkins, Zackary Momoh and Tireni Oyenusi.
The Star Wars stunner next plays computer specialist Khadijah in Simon Kinberg’s all-female spy thriller The 355 — hitting United States and United Kingdom theatres on January 15 — alongside Diane Kruger, Penélope Cruz, Jessica Chastain, and Bingbing Fan.
The Walking Dead alum will next rumoured appear in Adam Wingard’s Kaiju action flick Godzilla vs Kong — hitting US/UK theatres on May 21 — alongside Alexander Skarsgård and Millie Bobby Brown.