HBO Max has ordered Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira’s adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s best selling book Americanah.
Variety reports that the 10-episode limited series will star Nyong’o with Gurira writing the pilot and tapped as the showrunner.
Americanah follows a beautiful, confident young woman, Ifemelu, raised in Nigeria, who falls in love with her classmate Obinze. She later heads for America, where she is forced to grapple with her identity and what it means to be Black. Meanwhile, Obinze, unable to join Ifemelu in America, follows a dangerous path in London.
Both Gurira and Nyong’o will serve as executive producers on the project.
It was first announced that the pair would be teaming up for the project in 2018. Nyong’o acquired the rights to the adaptation in 2014.
“Through Americanah, Chimamanda brought the African female voice into mainstream consciousness in an unprecedented way,” Gurira said in a statement via Variety.
“It is intellectually incisive, indicting, yet full of humor, and riddled with humanity. She makes unheard voices familiar, universal and yet palpably specific. I am honored to bring her incredible novel to life on the screen. I’m thrilled to collaborate once again with Lupita who brings her astounding ability as a performer and producer shepherding this project, along with HBO MAX’s unbridled enthusiasm to bring this groundbreaking narrative to the TV audience.”
Nyong’o added, “Americanah has been a passion project for me since I read Chimamanda’s beautiful novel in 2013. It’s a tale that is simultaneously timely and timeless. HBO Max is the perfect partner to bring this profound and celebrated story to life, and I’m thrilled that Danai will bring to the project her intelligence, wit, and understanding of the stories and the worlds of Americanah.”
