Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong’o To Play Mother & Daughter In ‘The Woman King’

Viola Davis and Lupita Nyongo to star in an upcoming movie together.

The two Oscar-winning ladies have been cast in the film “The Woman King,” which tells the story of true events that took place in the Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful West African states in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Davis will take the role of Nanisca, the general of an all-female military unit known as the Amazons. Nyong’o will star as Nawi, the daughter of Nanisca. The story follows the mother-daughter duo as they fight side-by-side against the French and other nearby tribes who invaded their land, enslaved their people, and attempted to overrule them.

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TriStar Pictures acquired the rights to the film and TriStar Pictures president Hannah Minghella says, “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.”

The original story of “The Woman King” is from Maria Bello. Cathy Schulman’s Welle Entertainment will produce the film. Schulman and Minghella will supervise the film for TriStar Pictures.