The Woman King

We have stars like Viola Davis, John Boyega, and more as part of this epic historical drama that tells the real story of the all-female warrior unit called the ...

[Halle Berry film](https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/the-most-badass-halle-berry-performances), Bruised, on Netflix, and also appeared in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. She also portrayed Nomi in the [No Time to Die cast](https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2470891/no-time-to-die-an-updated-cast-list-for-daniel-craigs-last-007-movie), as well as being in Brotherhood, Powder Room, and Fast Girls. He also appeared in The Circle and Naked Singularity. She is also set to appear in the [upcoming Black Adam](https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2488191/dwayne-johnsons-black-adam-movie-what-we-know-so-far-about-the-shazam-spin-off), as well as The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. She also had a part in [2022’s Disney+ version of Pinocchio](https://www.cinemablend.com/streaming-news/disneys-pinocchio-quick-things-we-know-about-the-live-action-movie). He also had a role in two TV shows called Safe and Cleaning Up. Voldemort) in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Next up, we take a look at Amenza, yet another amazing warrior in The Woman King, and she is portrayed by Sheila Atim. Most recently, in 2021, she had a lead role in Next up on the list, we have Nawi in The Woman King, who is portrayed by Thuso Mbedu. Some of her other biggest films that you might have seen her in include The Suicide Squad franchise, where she appeared as Amanda Waller in both films, Beautiful Creatures, Widows, Get On Up ( [Jordan Peele’s latest horror, Nope,](https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/how-jordan-peele-completely-changed-one-nope-character-following-one-stars-audition) the terrifying Barbarian, and now we’re going to continue with some awesome releases for the whole world to see.

The new film, starring Viola Davis and John Boyega, sheds light on an all-female African army.

The last survivor of the Agojie is thought to have been a woman named Nawi and, in 1978, a Beninese historian met Nawi, who claimed to have fought the French in 1892. [Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/07/behold-the-woman-king-viola-davis-warrior-general): “We didn’t want to show them as just one thing—badass women who killed. Female soldiers were reportedly signed up from the age of eight-years-old and underwent a gruelling training regime to prepare for battles. In their very last battles, against French troops equipped with vastly superior weaponry, about 1,500 women took the field, and only about 50 remained fit for active duty by the end". Here’s your guide to the history of these warrior women. In fact, there’s only one recorded full-length, English-language book in history on the tribe,

In “ The Woman King,” the always regal Oscar-winner is a mass of muscle, battle wounds and world weariness as General Nanisca, the head of the Agojie, ...

It’s also a very Hollywood version of what may have happened as they prepare to go up against the powerful Oyo empire, with some convenient reveals, a love interest, a slightly idealized king figure (in John Boyega) and an old score someone needs to settle. But unlike some recent cinematic depictions of armies not entirely comprised of men, they didn’t have to look to fantasy or the comic books to make “The Woman King” — just a history that isn’t widely taught. It’s 1823 and there is rape and rampant hatred of women. [The Woman King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RDaPV_rJ1Y),” the always regal Oscar-winner is a mass of muscle, battle wounds and world weariness as General Nanisca, the head of the Agojie, an all-female unit of warriors who protected the West African Kingdom of Dohemy in the 19th century. The world of the “The Woman King” is no paradise though. Terence Blanchard lends a fittingly rousing score to the action, which, though brutal, is carefully constructed to keep that superhero PG-13 rating.

Director Gina Prince-Bythewood empowered her collaborators, and the result is a sweeping historical epic unlike any that have come before.

So many of us knew what we were doing was special because it was different and we hadn’t seen it before. I believed her in those trailers, and of course, she was in Captain Marvel, but it was what she said about the type of films she wanted to do and the type of work she wanted to put in the world. It was certainly in the fighting and stunts that I was able, I think, to provide the most direction. And so I told them, “To bring that, you have to start on volume 10.” I remember the first time on the day we shot it, the entire crew was watching to see what it looked like. That was the fun part of the specificity, me being an athlete, having kickboxed for a couple of years, being able to impart that into Viola and that character and let her know what it feels like when you’re about to fight and what it feels like to be in a fight. That was me having them train together to connect, to get to know each other, to rely on each other, and to push each other. We were going to let her build her box and build our action and fighting around it. And it was getting her comfortable being able to do her own fighting and stunts. Viola was 56 when production began, and a starring role for a Black woman in film, especially one over 50, is exceedingly rare, but she does some of her best work in The Woman King. She’s a genius and deserves all the choices, and the reality of our industry is that you don’t get them as a Black artist, so she created her own. A lot of our interaction after that was building a relationship between her and Thuso. What we wanted to do with the character of Izogie is so specific, and I love the character on the page, but Lashana inspired me to give her more, not only in dialogue, humor, story, and backstory but also in action.

There are no white saviours in the movie, no white knights in shining armour. Just black people being themselves, doing their thing.

The movie, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. The film is due for release in the United States on Sept. 9, is based on the true story of the Agojie, a real-life group of female warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s.

Nanisca serves King Ghezo (John Boyega), who leaves the fighting and the dying to the Agojie. And there's plenty of both as director Gina Prince-Bythewood, who ...

Nanisca serves King Ghezo (John Boyega), who leaves the fighting and the dying to the Agojie. There's nothing made up about the Agojie, the legion of women warriors who grab and hold the spotlight as if by divine right in "The Woman King." That's the unwritten mission statement behind "The Woman King," starring Viola Davis in a performance brimming over with ferocity and feeling.

'The Woman King' stars Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu and Sheila Atim as an elite team of all-female warriors from 19th century western Africa.

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Hence director Gina Prince-Bythewood's decision to have the Dahomey and Oyo characters speak in African-accented English while the European slavers deliver ...

While The Woman King falters on questions of story and skirmish, it is nevertheless compelling throughout thanks to the performances delivered by Lynch, Mbedu, and the rest of the Agojie. Indeed, at one point Dahomey King Ghezo (John Boyega)—despite being able to speak Portuguese—demands that the slaver with whom he is speaking speak “his” language. Hence director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s decision to have the Dahomey and Oyo characters speak in African-accented English while the European slavers deliver their dialogue in subtitled Portuguese.

The Viola Davis produced and starring femme warrior pic is off to a solid start with $1.7M after showtimes that began at 3PM yesterday at 3,271.

The $50M feature co-financed by TriStar and eOne is expected to make between $13M-$16M this weekend after [a very warmly received premiere](https://deadline.com/2022/09/viola-davis-delivers-impassioned-speech-at-woman-king-tiff-world-premiere-magnum-opus-is-for-risk-takers-naysayers-actress-six-year-old-self-1235113548/) at TIFF last Friday, and Rotten Tomatoes critic reviews that had hovered at 100% now have now settled to a still-great 94%. [The Woman King](https://deadline.com/tag/the-woman-king/) is off to a solid start with $1.7M after showtimes that began at 3 p.m. [Sony](https://deadline.com/tag/sony/) was eyeing Harriet and Widows, the latter a Davis action crime movie, as comps, and already Woman King has beaten both those pics’ respective $600K Thursday previews by 183%. Now at 3,056 theaters, Bullet Train‘s domestic total through six weeks stands at $93.9M, while Maverick counts $706.8M at the end of its 16th week. The Woman King expands to 3,675 theaters this weekend, and the hope is that those excellent reviews will pull in adults at a time when there’s not much on the marquee. [Pearl](https://deadline.com/tag/pearl/) going wide at 2,900 theaters.

The Woman King stars Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu share some fun behind-the-scenes stories about filming their fight scenes and doing stunt work.

You mentioned a little bit about the challenges of what it takes to do these things, but are you ever doing 20 takes of some of these things? We're going to have to ask Sony Studios for more money and that's going to have to be it." But I had respect for what he was doing before, because not only the action sequences, but I have to say his age. Because I think that people just think of you have the conception of the movie, and then you see it on the screen; everything in between, no one talks about. And I think that is what would surprise people the most, because I think that people have an idea that it's easier than what it is. Got to a point where I told Danny, I was like, "You remember that I'm afraid of heights?" During my audition process, I had to go through a physical test for the stunt coordinator to determine whether I'd be able to do my own stunts or not, because we had to do our own stunts in the project. But that's with anything; once you actually do anything, you see the fantasy of it and the reality of it. There is a you do it over and over again. I love learning about the behind the scenes of the making of films. With director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s (The Old Guard, Love & Basketball) The Woman King now playing in theaters, I recently got to speak with Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu about making the movie inspired by true events. The film follows Nanisca (Davis) as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life.

'The Woman King' stars Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu and Sheila Atim as an elite team of all-female warriors from 19th century western Africa.

And to be able to step into a space where I knew that the people who were leading the charge also had an added understanding of who I might be as a Black woman, to have a shorthand with them, there’s a really healing aspect that comes in there. For me, I think it’s important that if a story is engaging in different types of trauma — and there are lots of different types in this story — that there is nuance there. And so when you have a Black film that makes money, then you can come in the room and say, “Wait a minute, I want to make a movie about [something related],” then you have their ear. And so then you could just get on to the business of being you. Lynch: There was a different level of dedication that was required in order to really throw ourselves in to the point where we don’t recognize ourselves. And it was really incredible to look around the set and see this group of women whose bodies were capable of something we couldn’t quite understand. Atim: The definition of the word “big” is so interesting because there’s big in terms of budget and production value and then there’s the other layer of that word, the depth of what this film means, represents, entailed, required from us. It would have been a really different experience to walk around a set in a studio and then walk onto lino[leum] or concrete. As a Black actor, to have a Black director at the helm meant knowing that your attributes, physicality, mind and everything that comes with being a Black woman is already taken care of. And actually went above and beyond to fight for the Blackest-Black film that we could make. “But I encourage people to understand that it’s not ‘Black Panther.’ It is its own movie and its own narrative.” It gave us a chance to operate in a genre that [we’ve always wanted to be a part of but that] has predominantly been designated to white males.

"The Woman King" exists in the ideal spot between history and entertainment. Here is a breakdown of the female empowerment themes in the Viola Davis film.

Fighting for power, riches, or conquest (as the Oyo tribe and the European slavers are shown to do) is bad, and they are punished for it by the end of the film. So, with the ending of "The Woman King," Nanisca and Agojie lead a slave revolt against a Portuguese slave port, burning it to the ground. once said " [riots are the voice of the unheard](https://time.com/3838515/baltimore-riots-language-unheard-quote/)." [Andrew Bergman](http://www.geocities.ws/rljotago/CB_project.htm) said, "Every movie is a cultural artifact and as such reflects the values, fears, myths, and assumptions of the culture that produces it." It's iffy how ethical the sanitation of King Ghezo in "The Woman King" is, but it's far from unprecedented. So, by the end of the film, Nanisca has learned to value motherhood, and even romantic love, rather than bottling it up, as she did at the beginning of the film. By the end of the film, it is shown that choosing tradition is better than assimilation or appeasement to a corrupt status quo, especially when considering the barbarism of how colonization enforces their power. "The Woman King" is set in the 1820s, when many difficult decisions were foisted upon African tribes, including how to deal with other warring tribes, and how those rivalries helped fuel the Atlantic slave trade. There is an element of class commentary in the film, where Viola Davis' General Nanisca has to contend with the beautiful, but condescendingly ambitious upper-class wife of King Ghezo, Shante (Jayme Lawson, "The Batman"). This is one of the few plot threads left dangling at the end of the film, and it's interesting to think about what happened after the credits rolled. Meanwhile, a new crop of young girls are being trained to be the new generation of Agojie warriors, with Nanisca taking a shine to Nawi (Thuso Mbedu,) who she sees as reminiscent of herself. From the African kingdom of Dahomey, they are led by the newly-appointed young King Ghezo (John Boyega), who Nanisca and The Agojie helped come to power.

Atim is a two-time Olivier Award winner who stars alongside Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch and John Boyega in Sony's historical epic The Woman King, ...

Also a playwright, her debut play, Anguis — produced by Avalon and BBC Arts — premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019. The actress also starred alongside Academy Award winner Halle Berry in her feature directorial debut, Bruised, which premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. The actress plays Signora Vitelli in Robert Zemeckis’ Pinocchio for Disney+ and will next appear in the drama All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, which is a co-production between A24 and Barry Jenkins’ filmmaking collective, Pastel.

The Woman King features Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu and John Boyega in a (somewhat true) story of the Agojie, an all-female guard protecting the ...

One helping factor is that The Woman King is the first big movie aimed at women since Crawdads, which was the first of its ilk since Everything, Everything All at Once and The Lost City in late March. It may not be explicitly positioned as an Oscar flick (it’s an action movie first), but a strong opening could put it in the game. Still, otherwise both ‘not a white guy’ flicks will have the field to themselves, especially outside of horror movies like Halloween Ends (and the rerelease of Avatar), until Black Adam and Tickets to Paradise on October 21. The Woman King features Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu and John Boyega in a (somewhat true) story of the Agojie, an all-female guard protecting the king and otherwise defending the West African kingdom of Dahomey in the 18th and 19th centuries. That old-school melodrama, starring Daisy Edgar Jones and based on a much-read best-seller, legged out to $86 million domestic on a $24 million budget. Splitting the difference would be around $17 million, a debut on par with Sony’s female-targeted Where the Crawdads Sing from back in July.

Viola Davis anchors an excellent ensemble in this rousing period piece about the Agojie warriors of Dahomey.

And because the women are very much human, the stunt work is remarkably grounded in the realism of their training and their prowess with their weapons of choice. Check out the trailer for the 13 TMNT titles and their Japanese versions, coming to PC via Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on August 30, 2022.The collection includes: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (Arcade), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (NES), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (Super Nintendo), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Super Nintendo), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Sega Genesis), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Sega Genesis), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of The Foot Clan (Game Boy), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (Game Boy), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue (Game Boy).](/videos/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-the-cowabunga-collection-release-date-trailer) [Atomic Heart - Combat TrailerAtomic Heart gets a fresh, brutal new trailer, showcasing combat and more from this upcoming first-person shooter game. But even with those quibbles, The Woman King is very much an engaging movie about the ingenuity and compassion of the Agojie warriors. But the bulk of those stories do land because the cast is so damn good in selling the humanity within them. The Oyos are painted as the baddies with the Dahomey the progressive good guys, even with their contributions to the selling of their countrymen. The script itself is a bit surface when it comes to the complexities of the social and political tribe dynamics of the time, but the ensemble cast elevates even the soapiest subplots to make this a story worth watching. Each has amassed great wealth selling their prisoners to the slavers to fill their coffers, perpetuating a vicious cycle of preying on one another for profit. Fed up with her brazen ways and lack of value, Nawi’s father gifts her to King Ghezo (John Boyega) and she is given the opportunity to join the Agojie. One of the most interesting moral quandaries of the film is witnessing how both the Dahomey and the Oyo are complicit in helping the slave trade. Despite the brutal training process overseen by General Nanisca, Nawi finds agency and friendship amongst her fellow peers and is mentored by the elite warrior Izogie (Lashana Lynch). The latter valued its women warriors so much that they had gender parity in their upper echelons of power, including an all-female guard known as the Agojie. Viola Davis is their world-weary yet fierce General Nanisca, who trains the women of her tribe and the captured women of other tribes to become elite warriors of unparalleled respect.

Gina Prince-Bythewood's latest film is a rousingly old-fashioned action-drama about women warriors in 19th-century West Africa.

Prince-Bythewood has conceived The Woman King in the grand-scale tradition of epics like Braveheart and Gladiator, this time with women leading the charge. To its credit, the script addresses some of the historical complexities of the situation, including the fact that Dahomey became a rich kingdom by participating in the trans-Atlantic slave trade — a practice that Nanisca wants to end. Nanisca may not be the most complex character Davis has played, but it's thrilling to see her take on her first major action showcase as she dons battle gear, wields a sword and hacks her way through the many, many men who get in her way. The Woman King was shot on location in South Africa, and its re-creation of the Dahomey villages is so immersive — the costumes, designed by Gersha Phillips, are especially gorgeous — that it just about carries you past some of the messiness of the storytelling. But by the end, Nawi absorbs those values and becomes a courageous fighter, honing her skills through many exciting scenes of training and competition. As Prince-Bythewood has said in interviews, her focus on women protagonists, especially Black women protagonists, had made it hard over the years to get her projects off the ground.

Gina Prince-Bythewood's latest film is a rousingly old-fashioned action-drama about women warriors in 19th-century West Africa.

Prince-Bythewood has conceived The Woman King in the grand-scale tradition of epics like Braveheart and Gladiator, this time with women leading the charge. To its credit, the script addresses some of the historical complexities of the situation, including the fact that Dahomey became a rich kingdom by participating in the trans-Atlantic slave trade — a practice that Nanisca wants to end. Nanisca may not be the most complex character Davis has played, but it's thrilling to see her take on her first major action showcase as she dons battle gear, wields a sword and hacks her way through the many, many men who get in her way. The Woman King was shot on location in South Africa, and its re-creation of the Dahomey villages is so immersive — the costumes, designed by Gersha Phillips, are especially gorgeous — that it just about carries you past some of the messiness of the storytelling. But by the end, Nawi absorbs those values and becomes a courageous fighter, honing her skills through many exciting scenes of training and competition. As Prince-Bythewood has said in interviews, her focus on women protagonists, especially Black women protagonists, had made it hard over the years to get her projects off the ground.

The actors perform their own stunts, including a couple of flips to the dirt, in this scene from the film. The director Gina Prince-Bythewood narrates.

In this sequence, that means performers have to pull off a flip in a couple of wrestling scenes. “We’ve seen training montages before and they’re always fun and exciting,” the director Gina Prince-Bythewood said, narrating the scene. In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) has been dumped by her father at the palace in the Kingdom of Dahomey in 19th-century Africa. The woman leading the drills is Izogie (Lashana Lynch), whom Nawi ultimately tries to emulate. See new episodes in the series on Fridays.

Viola Davis stars in 'The Woman King,' a historical epic that chronicles the trials and triumphs of the Agojie and Dahomey.

“There will always be time to consume the legacy of Dahomey and the slave trade,” Wantchekon says. In The Woman King, Nanisca experiences firsthand the horrors of slavery, and works to convince King Ghezo to stop participating in the slave trade—or at least to end the tributary status of the Dahomey to the Oyo Empire. But The Woman King marks the [first time](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/real-warriors-woman-king-dahomey-agojie-amazons-180980750/) that a major motion picture in the U.S. He also acknowledges that multiple facets can be true, and highlighted, at the same time: a society can be forward-thinking and advanced in one regard while causing immeasurable harm in another. The Woman King opens in 1823, the year that King Ghezo finally freed Dahomey from its tributary status. [told](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/viola-davis-gina-prince-bythewood-the-woman-king-1235210487/) The Hollywood Reporter. Wantchekon posits, though, that Queen Hangbe, the twin sister of King Akaba, planted the seed for the idea of the women warriors in the early 1700s. [Dora Milaje in Black Panther](https://time.com/5171219/black-panther-women-true-history/). And third, King Ghezo catalyzed the expansion of military might. Wantchekon makes three key points about the conditions that made Dahomey ripe for the Agojie to thrive. “But they are products of a social environment that enables women to do anything they want to do or they can do—including going to war.” [Gina Prince-Bythewood](https://time.com/collection/american-voices-2017/4696466/gina-prince-bythewood-filmmaker/) out Sept.

Viola Davis presides over Gina Prince-Bythewood's rousing action movie with a conflicted view of the past. Co-starring Lashana Lynch and John Boyega.

And yet they still exist in service to the whims of a king. The broader in theme it gets, the less convincing it is, and never more so than when it introduces a forbidden love interest for Nawi in the form of a biracial slaver named Malik (Jordan Bolger, all abs) who, over the course of what feels like minutes, connects to his Dahomey heritage and repudiates everything about the trade he’s been participating in. Its version of the Agojie, led by a brawny Viola Davis as General Nanisca, take up arms not just against the rival Oyo Empire and the Mahi people they’re aligned with, but against the Europeans who have been buying captives from all of them and finally against the slave trade itself.

VIola Davis stars in "The Woman King," released nationwide on Sept. 16, a film that tells of the Agojie warriors of Dahomey, now Benin, aka Black Amazons.

And sometime around 1864, [women soldiers managed to break through the defenses of the city of Abeokut](https://www.amazon.com/Wives-Leopard-Politics-Culture-Kingdom/dp/0813917921) — a feat their male counterparts had not achieved. Stanley Alpern, author of “ [Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey](https://www.amazon.com/Amazons-Black-Sparta-Warriors-Dahomey/dp/0814707726),” argues that the unit was likely established in the 1720s to strengthen palace security. I know the story of Dahomey well and am still looking forward to seeing it play out on the big screen. [5,000 women served as Agojie soldiers](https://www.amazon.com/Wives-Leopard-Politics-Culture-Kingdom/dp/0813917921) during these years. As Alpern explains, some of the king’s wives became the guards for the palace because [men were not allowed on the palace grounds after dark](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/dahomeys-women-warriors-88286072/) — most likely so those men would not have access to the king’s wives. [American classrooms fail to introduce students to African history, cultures and societies](https://www.insider.com/how-to-improve-how-black-history-is-taught-in-schools-2020-6). In 1861, Francesco Borghero – a missionary in Dahomey’s capital of Abomey – [recounted witnessing a military demonstration of 3,000 Agojie soldiers](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/dahomeys-women-warriors-88286072/) under the direction of King Glele. The portrayal of strong, Black women fighters is significant — especially in a film industry that rarely features dark-skinned women in leading roles and even more rarely casts light on African women’s leadership roles. "The Woman King," therefore, will help to counter these realities. In 1781, Dahomey’s King Kpengla led 800 armed women against Agouna, a neighboring country, in an effort to reclaim 100 captive women. Oscar winner Viola Davis portrays General Nanisca, the leader of the Agojie, as those women warriors were called, and the film This film is for the people who maybe even are the naysayers who never believed that a Black woman, especially dark-skinned women, can lead a global box office.”

Gina Prince-Bythewood's latest film is a rousingly old-fashioned action-drama about women warriors in 19th-century West Africa.

On Location: 'The Woman King' Takes Viewers to South African Game Reserves, Beaches, and Castles · What were you looking for when choosing filming locations?

TORONTO (AP) — When Viola Davis, sculpted and hardened from months of training, first stood in the full garb of the Agojie warrior women, with her bare feet ...

Gina Prince-Bythewood's latest film is a rousingly old-fashioned action-drama about women warriors in 19th-century West Africa.

Viola Davis is their world-weary yet fierce General Nanisca, who trains the women of her tribe and the captured women of other tribes to become elite warriors ...

She drives the majority of the story and lands everything the movie asks of her and then some. And because the women are very much human, the stunt work is remarkably grounded in the realism of their training and their prowess with their weapons of choice. As expected, Viola Davis is the emotional center of the piece, masterfully fine-tuning her performance to go from fierce to vulnerable as needed. The script itself is a bit surface when it comes to the complexities of the social and political tribe dynamics of the time, but the ensemble cast elevates even the soapiest subplots to make this a story worth watching. But even with those quibbles, The Woman King is very much an engaging movie about the ingenuity and compassion of the Agojie warriors. Viola Davis is their world-weary yet fierce General Nanisca, who trains the women of her tribe and the captured women of other tribes to become elite warriors of unparalleled respect.

The historical action epic, starring Viola Davis, tells the story of the Agojie, female African warriors who once reigned supreme.

“This is a very timely moment to revisit this story – women as the drivers of family businesses, as the glue for family, as the political visionaries, as the arbiters of change across west Africa, as the continent’s quiet heroes. “For instance, there are 77 mayors currently in Benin and only four are women, which is unimaginable, given the history of the place. This is an old story of heroism, of feminism, but a story that also feels very current.” “But one of the tragedies is that when the French took over the kingdom, when they defeated the Dahomey, not only did they ban the Agojie but also they basically prevented women from moving up in public service, in government, in educational opportunities. To prepare for the shoot in South Africa, Davis and fellow cast members So I don’t want simply to be talking about how incredible this has been; we need to keep the legacy of those women alive.” As a result, you have decline not only of the Agojie but also of the status of women in that region. “In 1970, those women that many consider as mythical figures, a few of them were still alive.” Before Hollywood called, Wantchekon had already been working on 51 biographies of the warrior women, visiting the places where they lived and died and speaking to their descendants. One British traveller, observing the women train by scrambling over acacia thorns, [wrote](https://archive.org/details/amazonsofblacksp0000alpe/mode/1up?q=thorn): “I could not persuade myself that any human being, without boots or shoes, would, under any circumstances, attempt to pass over so dangerous a collection of the most efficiently armed plants I had ever seen.” There had always been a strong sense of equitable gender norms and representation of women in government.” Europeans dubbed them “Amazons”, evoking the warrior women of

"The Woman King," starring Viola Davis and John Boyega, is a fictionalized story based on the real Agojie, the all-female African military in Dahomey.

"Voodoo has this baggage of putting spells on people or being evil and that doesn't happen in the movie," Stevens says. It was important to show the "price" of becoming a soldier beyond just sacrificing your life, Stevens says. That goes back to Vodun, the religion practiced in Dahomey, Stevens says. We liked the authenticity of the names that we chose, and, yes, some of them do appear in some of the research, but they're borrowed." [Viola Davis](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2022/04/26/viola-davis-memoir-finding-me-revelations/7446179001/) plays the lead general of the women warriors tasked with protecting the people of Dahomey (modern-day Benin) and King Ghezo (portrayed by John Boyega) during his rule beginning in 1818. But she struggles with the idea that to be an Agojie warrior she must sacrifice love – even if it's just harmless flirting. "It was OK that there were differences in how people spoke," she says. And not everyone is meant to have the same accent, as Dahomey was a mixture of captives or people who joined their kingdom to flee war. [UNESCO's "The Women Soldiers of Dahomey." "Nawi is a name that is known to be an Agojie warrior who lived into the 20th century," Stevens says. [the all-female African army ](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2022/04/25/woman-king-viola-davis-cinemacon-2022/7448154001/)who inspired [the fictional Dora Milaje in Marvel's "Black Panther,"](https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2018/02/15/black-panther-dora-milaje/309218002/) allows women "to look up on screen and see themselves heroic not as superheroes but real women," director Gina Prince-Bythewood says. Prince-Bythewood and screenwriter Dana Stevens break down all of that, plus the history of Dahomey.

The Woman King features Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu and John Boyega in a (somewhat true) story of the Agojie, an all-female guard protecting the ...

With a low profile and little buzz, the twisty little flick earned $1.086 million yesterday for a likely $2.92 million opening weekend. The decently reviewed (66% fresh and 6.2/10 on Rotten Tomatoes) threequel earned around $180,00 on Friday for a likely $450,000 opening weekend and lousy $563 per-theater average. The well-reviewed and well-received (a B- from Cinemascore, which may be a record for an A24 horror movie) prequel was shot right after X amid the Covid pandemic, so A24 got two (make that three with MaXXXine on the way) for the metaphorical price of one. The NEON release earned $580,000 on Friday for a likely $1.12 million weekend gross and $6,588 per-theater average. Thandiwe Newton’s God’s Country opened with $96,000 on Friday for a likely $262,000 opening weekend in 785 theaters. The low-budget ‘secret’ prequel to X opened with $1.317 million on Friday, which seems to set the stage for a $3.5 million opening weekend. That’s on par with the $4.275 million debut for X this past March, which tracks as it’s a sequel and plenty of moviegoers might have decided one horror romp with Mia Goth’s murderous protagonist was enough. In what could mark an end to a distributor-caused theatrical slump, Sony and Entertainment One’s The Woman King topped the box office on Friday with a decent $6.85 million opening day. The hope is that the $50 million film legs out like Crawdads to an over/under $85 million domestic total, with at least some help overseas to make up the rate-of-return difference. The Woman King features Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu and John Boyega in a (somewhat true) story of the Agojie, an all-female guard protecting the king and otherwise defending the West African kingdom of Dahomey in the 18th and 19th centuries. That includes $1.7 million via Thursday previews and seems to set the stage for an $18 million debut. That Daisy Edgar Jones-starring melodrama was the first big movie for/from/about women since The Lost City and Everything, Everywhere All at Once in late March.