From Maz Kanata to 'Jungle Book': Lupita Nyong'o Is Here, There, Everywhere

Maz Kanata on set (Rian Johnson/Tumblr)

Lupita Nyong'o seemed to be in two places at once on Monday. As the Oscar winner spent the morning doing the media rounds for her voice role as the she-wolf Raksha in the Jon Favreau’s upcoming Jungle Book remake, the Internet was going crazy over an image of the actress, in the guise of her Star Wars character, Maz Kanata, appearing in a soundstage in Great Britain, where the sequel is currently filming.

Beamed via Star Wars: Episode VIII filmmaker Rian Johnson’s Tumblr, the photo shows standups of Maz on what appears to be a motion-capture stage. Nyong’o will be reprising her role as the sagacious space pirate in the sequel (Lucasfilm confirmed as much when Episode VIII commenced shooting); we also know she has been hanging with her co-stars recently, thanks to an image Mark Hamill posted on Twitter on Monday (also featuring a photo-bombing Oscar Isaac) that appeared to be taken from the set.

We’re not sure when Hamill took the picture, though, since Nyong’o, along with her Jungle Book cast mates, was with Yahoo Movies to talk about her current Disney film two hours after the tweet went up. In Favreau’s eye-popping photorealistic new take on the 1967 cartoon (and the Rudyard Kipling stories that inspired it), the actress serves as the maternal figure for the orphaned Mowgli (played by newcomer Neel Sethi). As with her Star Wars role, Nyong’o dispenses wise advice with equal parts affection and attitude.

Nyong'o poses with her ‘Jungle Book’ alter ego (Disney)

She explained that recording her role for Jungle Book was a departure from the mo-cap work she did for The Force Awakens. She initially recorded alone, using some sketches for guidance. Later, she returned to the booth, where Favreau was able to screen Sethi’s performance, as well as some of the other voice parts. “It’s so vital to have some of the stuff recorded. To hear the timbre of people’s voices, the subtext to what’s going on in what they’re saying, and to respond to that, was really, really cool to have,” she told us.

Nyong'o records 'Jungle Book’ dialogue (Disney)

“Although Jon used our performance to inform the animation, it was a very different thing from playing Maz Kanata.”

Nyong’o tweeted this clip last month showing how Maz came to life:

Thanks to the insane level of secrecy surrounding the Star Wars sequel, we know precious little about the role the googly-eyed alien will play. Perhaps we’ll learn how Maz got her hands on Luke’s lightsaber after he lost it dueling Vader in Cloud City? Or maybe we’ll discover her own relationship with the Force?

Editing and reshoots diminished Maz’s role in The Force Awakens, even leaving some viewers confused as to her fate after the First Order attacked her watering hole. However, the novelization, which is considered canon by Lucasfilm, offers a more complete picture of what happened. After Poe leads the X-wing attack that saves the day, Maz reappears. “Looks like I’ve got some cleaning up to do, hmm?” she says to Finn, adding, “Oh wow… I see something else now. I see the eyes of a warrior.”

We’ll have to wait until Dec. 14, 2017 to see what Maz has in store for Episode VIII. The Jungle Book, meanwhile, arrives April 15.