Lupita Nyong’o Celebrates Her Birthday with an Eddie Murphy Classic and Her Black Panther Co-Stars
By Maya Gold
International treasure Lupita Nyong’o is getting down with her nerd side as she celebrates her birthday–and 2018’s Black Panther.
As a refresher: fresh off knocking it out of the part in 12 Years a Slave and Broadway’s Eclipsed, Lupita Nyong’o dipped her toe into the world of sci-fi/fantasy by voicing the turtle-y not-like-Yoda-at-all Maz Katana in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Lupita-as-Maz also made a short Lego-form cameo and will be reprising the role in 2017’s The Last Jedi (plural).
Lupita clearly decided the water was warm, because she’ll be portraying Nakia in 2018’s Black Panther. Not much is known about Nakia, but Lupita herself has mentioned that Nakia is a member of the Dora Milaje, also known Price T’Challa’s badass lady bodyguard fighting force—and that she may be just a little bit villainous. TBD.
Lupita threw a party based on Eddie Murphy’s 1988 Coming to America, inviting her fellow Black Panther cast members.
What we do know is that Lupita has taken the role to heart. Her birthday was on March 1st—Happy Birthday, Lupita!—and she decided to celebrate by throwing a Coming-to-America-themed party.
In the interest of journalistic integrity, I have to admit that I’ve never seen Coming to America. IMDB explains that it’s an Eddie Murphy movie from the late 80s. Murphy plays a prince from a fictional African country who comes to New York to find a bride, and I am confident in asserting that hijinks then ensue.
The movie isn’t without its problems in regards to its representation of African culture. That being said, if The Root is still debating its portrayal of African royalty and Lupita is throwing this party nearly 30 years after it first debuted, it has clearly withstood the test of time.
The best part, though, is that this isn’t just a Lupita-Coming-to-America-themed birthday party. It’s that the Lupita-Coming-to-America-themed birthday party also doubles as a continual shout out to Black Panther.
While documenting the party—which, naturally, looks like it was a total blast—Lupita introduced a new hashtag: #WakandansInZamunda. That’s Wakanda, the fictional country that Black Panther will take place in, and Zamunda, the fictional country that Eddie Murphy’s prince hails from in Coming to America. The hashtag got some mileage over the course of the evening: both Chadwick Boseman, or Black Panther‘s T’Challa, and Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira, who will play another member of the Dora Milaje, were also present and partying.
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Black Panther is set to hit the screens in the U.S. on February 16, 2018. Hopefully, it’s a rip-roaring success will make Lupita’s next birthday the best one yet!