Viola Davis and John Boyega on How ‘The Woman King’ Puts Women at the Forefront
Henry Morales
Published Feb 07, 2026
According to Viola Davis, The Lady Lord is more than a film about warriors – – it’s a film about possible results. The 56-year-old star and producer of the approaching obvious epic yields that she was at first restless about the genuine reality of highlighting as Agojie general Nanisca yet shares that once she began the work, it awakened.
Davis’ experience tends to the significance of the film’s explanation – – an obvious experience following the Agojie, an all-female outfitted force in the West African Realm of Dahomey in the eighteenth and nineteenth many years. The exceptional movement is like movies like Braveheart or Combatant, which generally aren’t driven by a cast of generally ladies. Especially People of variety.
Co-made and facilitated by Gina Sovereign Bythewood, The Lady Lord is an evident change in how media generally depicts People of variety. The film brings the record of Nanisca and her large number of impressive warriors who shielded the Realm of Dahomey to the big screen, showing them as the critical insurance against explorers who do whatever it takes to obliterate their way of life.
“The Lady Lord will tell one of history’s generally important neglected to recall stories from this current reality in which we live, where a huge number of African contender ladies warded off bondage, expansionism and between familial battling to tie together a country,” producer Cathy Schulman said of the errand when it was first revealed. Both she and Maria Bello, who is similarly a producer on the film, first tried out the idea in 2015 going before the film was officially pronounced in 2018.
Likewise, the film doesn’t stay away from the brutality expected from its sort – – when the power first look dropped in July, the savagery of the Agojie was found in full power as the trailer showed the tactical butchering their adversaries.
Those scenes aren’t just to look great. The stars arranged twice consistently, six days of the week to get into Agojie doing combating structure.
Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch and Sheila Atim star as Dahomey Amazons under Davis’ organization, with John Boyega including as Dahomey’s Top canine Ghezo.
Boyega saw how novel the experience has been for him, having to “sit back” and watch as his castmates “go into a space that usually men are constrained to go.”
The Lady Lord is planned to show up in execution fixates on Sept. 16.