Danai Gurira and Corey Hawkins to meet again in Americanah

Danai Gurira from AMC’s The Walking Dead will serve as showrunner and Corey Hawkins will star in the HBO Max series Americanah.

Danai Gurira, who plays Michonne on The Walking Dead, shared the tweet (below) about her excitement to work with fellow executive producer Lupita Nyongo, who she co-starred in Black Panther with, and fellow The Walking Dead castmate Corey Hawkins (Heath) as well as Zachary Momoh (Doctor Sleep and Harriet) in the HBO Max series entitled Americanah. Based on an award-winning novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah is a powerful story about love, race, and immigration. The series will air on HBO Max, sometime in 2020.

The first information for a film adaptation of this novel was released in 2014 and now it has changed from a film to a series. Gurira wrote the pilot and will serve as showrunner on the 10-episode limited series. Hawkins has joined the cast as Blaine, Ifemelu’s (the main character portrayed by Nyongo) present-day boyfriend and a professor at Yale.

The story follows two Nigerian teenagers as they separate to pursue their educations abroad  Infemelu (Nyongo) heads to American while Obinze (Momoh) studies in London.

Danai Gurira had this to say in an interview with Dateline:

"“Through Americanah, Chimamanda brought the African female voice into mainstream consciousness in an unprecedented way. It is intellectually incisive, indicting, yet full of humor, and riddled with humanity. She makes unheard voices familiar, universal and yet palpably specific,” said Gurira. “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.”"

Gurira, who portrays Michonne, will be leaving The Walking Dead which is in its 10th season. She first made her appearance on the series at the end of season 2. She encountered many trials during her time on The Walking Dead and has become a fan favorite. It will be very sad to lose such a powerhouse of a character.

Hawkins, who portrayed Heath on The Walking Dead, mysteriously disappeared in season 7 and it has been said that he is currently alive and with the CRM group that is mentioned in The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead and reported to be mention in the 2nd spin-off The World Beyond. Hopefully, we will be seeing Heath in a future episode on The Walking Dead.

Be sure to watch for the release date for Americanah on HBO Max this year. You can see Gurira in her final season of The Walking Dead starting February 23rd on AMC. Hawkins can be seen in Netlix’s 6 Underground.