Disney has turned to its own for its latest Marvel hire. Lupita Nyong”o is in talks for a part in Black Panther, The Hollywood Reporter revealed today.
Nyong”o – who”s appeared in Disney”s new Jungle Book, upcoming film Queen of Katwe, and, of course, The Force Awakens as Maz Kanata – would star opposite Chadwick Boseman”s T”Challa/Black Panther in the first standalone film for the character introduced to movie audiences in Captain America: Civil War.
The Oscar winner”s character has not been revealed, but The Hollywood Reporter says she”ll play the Black Panther”s love interest.
So that would lead us to believe she”s playing Ororo Munroe – a.k.a. Storm, Halle Berry”s character in the X-Men movies. Ororo is a notable love interest for T”Challa in the comics – though it”s not happily ever after for the pair. But 20th Century Fox holds the rights to Marvel Comics” X-Men characters. (The non-mutant versions of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in the MCU is a weird exception.) So as much as I“d like to see Nyong”o”s take on Storm, that's unlikely.
Other possibilities: Monica Lynne, an American whom T”Challa meets in New York. Or Nyong”o could be playing a member of the Dora Milaje who falls for her warrior king, like Nakia. (You can learn more about Nakia and others in the Dora Milaje – Wakandan female bodyguards – including where one showed up in Captain America: Civil War here.)
Black Panther, directed by Creed“s Ryan Coogler, will open in theaters in February 2018.