Lupita Nyong’o is the latest A-lister to join Christopher Nolan’s much-ballyhooed and much-shrouded feature film project, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.
The actress, last seen toplining this past summer’s alien invasion thriller A Quiet Place: Day One, joins a robust bold-faced call sheet that already includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway and Zendaya.
Nolan wrote the script and is directing the project, which Universal Pictures will distribute. The studio has set a release date of July 17, 2026.
Nolan’s latest comes with even less plot or logline details than usual for the highly-secretive filmmaker. Various theoretical, even divergent, details been posited regarding the project – period vampire thriller, a helicopter action thriller – but insiders maintain that nothing has come close to nailing Nolan’s real idea.
Universal had no comment.
The filmmaker is producing alongside his partner and wife Emma Thomas for their Syncopy banner. A shoot in the first half of 2025 is being planned.
The new feature reunites Nolan with the studio that made his drama Oppenheimer and propelled him to his first Oscars. He won best director and got a best picture statue as producer on the film, which earned a staggering $976 million worldwide.
While Nolan is fond of working with a certain repertoire of thespians, Nyong’o will be new to his team. The actress is not, however, new to Universal. She is the voice star of The Wild Robot, the adaptation of Peter Brown’s book by Universal arm DreamWorks Animation, which has proven a more-than-solid hit at the box office, having grossed almost $300 million since its release in September. She also starred in the studio’s Jordan Peele-directed horror movie, Us.
Nyong’o won an Academy Award for her performance in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave and starred in Black Panther and its sequel, Wakanda Forever. In September, she released her intimate and joyous podcast, Mind Your Own, which navigates what it means to belong, told via the African perspective.
The actress is repped by CAA and Del Shaw.
