Lupita Nyong'o To Star in New Disney Movie 'Queen Of Katwe'

Lupita Nyong'o is continuing her work with Disney, having landed a lead role in the franchise's upcoming film, Queen of Katwe. While attending the 2015 D23 Expo this past weekend, the Academy Award winner joined in on the fun of the convention by joining the co-stars of the three different Disney films she is part of, where the announcement about her role was made to be official.

 Double Duty at Disney. #Disney #d23expo #StarWars #ForceAwakens #TheJungleBook @DisneyStudios

A photo posted by Lupita Nyong'o (@lupitanyongo) on Aug 15, 2015 at 12:50pm PDT

Nyong’o will be hitting the big screen, along with David Oyelowo and rising actress Medina Nalwanga, to follow the journey of Phiona Mutesi, the female prodigy from the poverty-stricken slums of Uganda, who turned her dreams of becoming a champion chess player into a reality. The Mira Nair-directed film is actually based on a true story, with a screenplay written by William Wheeler. Nyong’o will play Mutesi’s mother.

Also while at the D23 Expo, the actress got a chance to promote the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie, which releases to theaters on Dec. 18, remarking that she was “geeking out” while promoting the movie, despite the fact that only her voice is set to be featured from her role. Later on, she even met her Jungle Book co-star, Neel Sethi, who plays the little boy named Mowgli, and is set to release next year on April 15. The actress posted a photo of her posing with her adorable co-star to her Instagram page, sharing their excitement for the upcoming Disney film.

Being that she is appearing in three upcoming movies for the franchise, Vanity Fair called her the “new face of Disney,” stating “she’s emblematic of the incredibly appealing direction the old-fashioned House of Mouse is taking.” They also made comparisons of Nyong’o’s presence in multiple Disney movies, to Chris Pine and Chris Evans being in the Marvel films, where they most commonly portray superheroes.