The long-gestating screen adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Americanah” is moving forward. Nearly four years after Lupita Nyong’o first optioned the heartbreaking novel about love, race, and identity, Konbini confirms that the Oscar winner and her “Black Panther” co-star Danai Gurira are bringing “Americanah” to the small screen as a miniseries. Nyong’o will take on the role of Ifemelu, the novel’s protagonist, and Gurira will write the adaptation.
“Americanah” follows Ifemelu as she grows up in Nigeria, travels to the United States to attend college, builds her writing career, and returns home as an adult. Throughout her journey she grapples with questions of race and culture, and maintains an intense connection to her first love, Obinze.
The “Americanah” adaptation will mark Nyong’o and Gurira’s third collaboration. The duo can currently be seen as Nakia and Okoye, respectively, in box office smash “Black Panther.” Previously, Nyong’o toplined Gurira’s play “Eclipsed,” a drama about four women held as sexual slaves by a warlord during the Liberian civil war.
No word on a director or release date for the “Americanah” miniseries yet.
It was recently announced that Nyong’o will topline and produce a film adaptation of Trevor Noah’s memoir, “Born a Crime.” She’ll portray Noah’s mother, a woman forced to hide her mixed-race son due to South Africa’s apartheid rule. The “Star Wars” franchise, “Queen of Katwe,” and “The Jungle Book” are among her other credits. Nyong’o is also working on a children’s book, “Sulwe.” Set to be published next year, it follows a young Kenyan girl who wants to lighten her dark complexion and eventually learns that beauty is not a specific standard, but is instead all-encompassing and much more than a physical construct.
Gurira, one of Essence’s 2018 Black Women in Hollywood Award honorees, has starred as the badass Michonne on “The Walking Dead” since 2012. Her screen credits include “Treme” and “Mother George,” and she’s written plays “In the Continuum,” “The Convert,” and “Familiar.” “Eclipsed” received six Tony nominations in 2016.
