Check Out This First Look at Lupita Nyong’o in Chess Drama The Queen of Katwe

There’s no slowing down Lupita Nyong’o, is there? I mean, why would you want to? Fresh off the immense (and growing) success of The Force Awakens, she’s already looking to her next project, The Queen of Katwe, where she plays Harriet Mutesi, the mother of Ugandan child chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi. Disney has just released the first look at Nyong’o’s role in the movie, and to be honest, the more I read about this project, the more excited I get about it.

The movie’s based on Tim Crothers’ novel of the (mostly) same name: The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster. It focuses on the real-life Phiona Mutesi’s journey to becoming a chess grandmaster. Also slated to appear in the movie are David Oyelowo and newcomer Madina Nalwanga as Phiona.

There isn’t a whole lot of preview material out yet–no trailers, no sneak peeks aside from this photo–but you can check out a short documentary on the real-life Phiona Mutesi on YouTube below.

What do you think? Are you stoked to check out another project featuring Nyong’o?

(via Blavity)

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Jessica Lachenal

Jessica Lachenal is a writer who doesn’t talk about herself a lot, so she isn’t quite sure how biographical info panels should work. But here we go anyway. She's the Weekend Editor for The Mary Sue, a Contributing Writer for The Bold Italic (thebolditalic.com), and a Staff Writer for Spinning Platters (spinningplatters.com). She's also been featured in Model View Culture and Frontiers LA magazine, and on Autostraddle. She hopes this has been as awkward for you as it has been for her.

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