Danai Gurira in role of a lifetime

By Tinashe Kusema

Danai Gurira has finally struck gold! Real gold this time around because she is now in the big league!

Having already made her mark on Broadway and mesmerised all as the sword-wielding “Michonne”, on the hit television series “The Walking Dead”; the 38-year old is now set to make a big splash on the silver screen in the coming months.

First, the Zimbabwean playwright and American-based actress will next year make her big feature debut in the highly anticipated Tupac Shakur biopic “All Eyez on Me”.

Having been signed onto the project, early last year, the film is scheduled for release early next year, and will chronicle the late rapper’s life from his childhood right up to his death.

Tupac died in Las Vegas, 1996, from what is believed to have been a hit. Gurira will play the late rapper’s mother Afeni Shakur.

Next year’s “All Eyez on Me” aside; the biggest news to come out of Gurira’s camp is that she has also signed on to join the Marvel Universe and will star in the highly anticipated blockbuster “Black Panther”.

Black Panther will be the 18th movie within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) — the highest grossing movie franchise in history and represents a shift in dynamics for the famed studio.

So far, the MCU has grossed over US$9 billion worldwide and with four more films due, between now and the release of “Black Panther”, that number is expected to grow exponentially.

While information is still sketchy, at the moment; Black Panther is set to begin filming sometime next year and will only hit theatres on February 16, 2018.

Marvel recently unveiled the movie’s main cast, with Gurira expected to line up alongside the likes of Chadwick Boseman, Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Forrest Whitaker, Winston Duke and Letita Wright.

Gurira is slated to play Okeye, a member of the Dora Milaje who are Wakanda women bred as potential brides for the king but used more as bodyguards for T’Challa (Boseman).

Efforts to touch base with Gurira, from her US base, were unsuccessful but the 38-year-old is believed to have already started training for the role.

lso, the nature of Marvel contracts also prohibits their stars from revealing too much about upcoming projects unless at Marvel approved events. She was, however, quoted as alluding to her earlier works, before “The Walking Dead (TWD)”, as playing a big part in her landing the role.

“The filmmaker had never watched it (TWD). He had watched me in something completely different . . . He had watched me in a more independent film called “Mother of George”.

“He has never seen The Walking Dead,” she told Comic.com.

“I’m training right now for Black Panther and, yes, there’s a lot of ways that they are extremely different. I’m learning such great, awesome new things,” she said.

Boseman’s Black Panther alter-ego has already been introduced to the MCU after the memorable cameo in this year’s “Captain America — Civil War”, where we were introduced to T’Challa (the prince of Wakanda). The Black Panther is T’Challa, a member of the royal family of Wakanda, and the nation’s sworn guardian.

Solely based on the comics and his brief stint in Civil War; T’Challa is the warrior blessed with a unique set of hand-to-hand combat skills, a cunning mind and big heart.

Due to Marvel’s secretive nature and the reputation of keeping their audience in suspense about upcoming projects, nothing has been officially released about the plot and how big a role Gurira and Lupita Nyong’o (Nakia), another rumoured Dora Milaje woman, are going to play.

The probable directions are either one of a routine origins story or a story cantered on Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) who we last saw frozen in Wakanda after the events of “Captain America — Civil War”.

Both theories are highly unlikely, given that “Avengers — Infinity Wars”, will be released three months later and continuity is the holy grail of the Marvel Universe. Whatever storyline, comic book or original, the studio decides to take, odds are it will be closely linked to “Avengers — Infinity Wars” story arc.

Done well; both roles, Afeni Shakur and Okeye, could have a huge impact on Gurira’s career and lead to bigger and better projects. Both are huge powerful women; with the former the mother of arguably the greatest rapper in history while the latter could have huge implications on how Marvel approaches diversity.

The lack of diversity, or marginalised groups, is one of the biggest criticism lodged against the MCU with the biggest case, today, being that of Donald Glover. Fans have been calling for Marvel to adopt the Miles Morales story arc of the Spiderman franchise.

Morales is the modern adaptation of Spiderman, taking over the mantle after the death of Peter Parker. A twitter campaign, #Donald4Spiderman, was launched back in 2010, but that was before Marvel bought the rights from Sony and gave the role to Tom Holland.

Holland has already been introduced to the MCU, with his brief cameo Captain America earning rave reviews. Holland and Glover are both set to feature in next year’s “Spiderman — Homecoming”.

Gurira is no stranger to the race wars of Hollywood as her 2015 play “Eclipsed”, won her rave reviews due to its subject matter. The film, which ironically also starred Lupita Nyong’o, was the first play to premiere on Broadway with an all-black and all-female cast.

Set in war-torn Liberia, the drama focuses on three women who are living as sex slaves and their tale of survival. The Sunday Mail