The Oscar winners are set to star in the historical drama set in 19th century West Africa, which is based on real events.
Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong'o are gearing up to prove just how ferocious they can be in TriStar's upcoming epic The Woman King.
The studio announced on Thursday that the Oscar winners have signed on to star as mother and daughter warriors in 19th century West Africa.
Based on true events, The Woman King takes place in the Kingdom of Dahomey (located in the present-day Republic of Benin) and follows Nanisca (Davis) -- the general of the Amazons, the nation's deadly, all-female military unit -- and her warrior daughter, Nawi (Nyong'o).
The two fight side-by-side to defend their nation from French invaders and neighboring kingdoms, who have attempted to enslave their people and are threatening their existence.
"The Woman King is the powerful true story of an extraordinary mother-daughter relationship," TriStar President Hannah Minghella said in the studio's press announcement. "There's no-one more extraordinary than Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong'o to bring them to life."
Nyong'o is currently enjoying a lot of love for her awesome performance in Marvel's Black Panther, where she plays Nakia, an international spy and fierce warrior. For her role, the 35-year-old actress learned multiple forms of martial arts and fighting techniques, which would no doubt help with her performance as an Amazon in The Woman King.
Producer Cathy Schulman said that Black Panther's universal acclaim and amazing performance at the box-office "showed us how the power of imagination and lore could reveal a world without gender and racial stereotypes."
"The Woman King will tell one of history’s greatest forgotten stories from the real world in which we live, where an army of African warrior women staved off slavery, colonialism and inter-tribal warfare to unify a nation," Schulman added.
The Woman King is the latest of several projects Nyong'o has taken on, following reports that she and her Black Panther co-star, Danai Gurira, are teaming up to develop a big-screen adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Americanah.
Apart from reports that she will also be starring opposite Kristen Stewart in the Elizabeth Banks-directed reboot of Charlie's Angels, Nyong'o is also producing and starring in a film based on Daily Show host Trevor Noah's best-selling memoir, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood.
