The Woman King stormed into the box office and received a very warm response. The movie's star, Thuso Mbedu, recently shared that her co-star John Boyega has an “amazing” idea for a sequel.
The TriStar Pictures and Sony film tells the story of the Agojie, an elite all-female warrior unit in the African kingdom of Dahomey. In the movie, Dahomey and the Agojie fight against the European slave trade of the 1800s. With its socially conscious themes and an impressive cast of Viola Davis (Fences, The Help), Mbedu (The Underground Railroad), Lashana Lynch (No Time to Die), and Boyega (Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens), it quickly became a fan favorite. The Woman King performed well at the box office and earned rave reviews.
Given the movie's success, it's not surprising that some are already talking about a sequel. Mbedu, who stars as a novice member of the Agojie named Nawi, said in an interview with Variety that although there are no current plans, her co-star Boyega had a great idea for a sequel. “I texted [the movie's director Gina Prince-Bythewood] the other day about it,” Mbedu said. “Gina said she doesn’t believe in sequels, but John had a nice idea for the sequel… I told it to Gina and she was like, ‘Ah, actually that could work,’ and then started bouncing ideas and I’m like, ‘Gina, go to sleep!’ And she was like, ‘No my mind is ticking already.’ So, we don’t know. Only Sony will tell us.”
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Boyega's sequel idea apparently revolves around his character, the king of Dahomey. The idea is “to go back to the history of the Dahomey—where he isn’t really a favorable king in real history. He would want us to touch on that in the second one,” Mbedu said. “What if we see him as more of a villain? That type of situation. And I was like, ‘That’s nice!’ It would be cool to see him in a different light.” The idea touches on the fact that The Woman King engages in some pretty severe revisionist history, which is getting some minor backlash from historically-minded fans.
The movie is loosely inspired by history, as the Agojie soldiers, the kingdom of Dahomey, and King Ghezo were all real. However, none of the events happened the way they are told in the movie. Neither Dahomey nor Ghezo ever opposed the slave trade, and in fact, they were the largest slavers in the region, perhaps equalled only by the Oyo empire, who are the villains of the film. Some historians even speculate that the reason Dahomey created a female unit of soldiers like the Agojie was that there were so few men left in the country who had not been sold off as slaves.
Although it appears that most of the cast and director Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard) is on board with the sequel idea, at this point it is only speculation and wishful thinking. However, if The Woman King continues to over-perform at the box office like it currently is, there's a good chance that producer TriStar and distributor Sony will request a sequel.
The Woman King is currently in theaters.
Source: Variety