We don’t know what we did to deserve this, but two of our favourite Academy Award-winning actresses Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong’o are set to star in a West African female warrior tale based on true events and we’re here for it!
TriStar Pictures have announced that they have acquired worldwide rights to Dahomey Amazons of Benin spartan tale The Woman King, inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries, The Woman King tells the story of Nanisca (Davis), General of the all-female military unit known as the Amazons, and her daughter Nawi (Nyong’o), who together fought the French and neighbouring tribes who violated their honour, enslaved their people, and threatened to destroy everything they’ve lived for.
Speaking of the film, which is based on an original story by Maria Bello, Hannah Minghella, President of TriStar Pictures, said: “The Woman King is the powerful true story of an extraordinary mother-daughter relationship, and there’s no-one more extraordinary than Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong’o to bring them to life.”
Viola, is also one of the producers for the film, along with her production company (Juvee Productions) partner (and husband), Julius Tennon, who said: “The Woman King has the potential to be a game changer for women of colour everywhere.” He continued “Viola and our team at JuVee are beyond excited to partner with Sony/TriStar to bring these fierce women to the big screen.”
Cathy Schulman, of Welle Entertainment, another producer of the film, said: “Black Panther just showed us how the power of imagination and lore could reveal a world without gender and racial stereotypes. 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.”
We can definitely see the parallels between these warrior women and Black Panther’s Dora Milaje, but the difference is that the Dahomey Amazons were real!
