Lupita Nyong’o Starring in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’

‘Black Panther’s Lupita Nyong’o to Star in ‘A Quiet Place’ Spin-Off ‘Day One’

‘Pig’ director Michael Sarnoski will make the movie based on an idea from franchise overseer John Krasinski.

Lupita Nyong'o attends the 90th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on March 4, 2018 in Hollywood, California. Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images.

She’s been part of the ‘Star Wars’ sequels. Starred in more than one Marvel movie. And thanks to both ‘Queen of Katwe’ and Jon Favreau’s ‘The Jungle Book’, Lupita Nyong’o can claim full Disney move status to boot.

So are there any more franchise worlds for her to conquer? Plenty, as it turns out – and she’s starting with Paramount’s ‘A Quiet Place’.

More specifically, the actor has been cast in the spin-off from the John Krasinski-overseen series of sci-fi movies called ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’.

You’ll recall that the movies started life with ‘A Quiet Place’ in 2018, after writers Bryan Woods and Scott Beck cooked up the idea of an invading alien species that arrives from the stars. The ravenous creatures are blind, but blessed with incredibly heightened hearing, and driven to attack any human making sounds.

Krasinski did a pass on the script and then agreed to direct, co-starring with wife Emily Blunt and young actors Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe, playing a family dealing with the aftermath of the invasion and the imminent arrival of a newborn.

The movie was a big success and was followed by ‘A Quiet Place: Part II’ in 2020, which focused on Blunt, Simmonds and Jupe’s characters in the tragic wake of the first movie. Krasinski returned to write and direct and appears as (spoiler alert) an ill-fated character in a prologue set during day one of the aliens’ arrival.

And that has spurred the creation of this spin-off movie, which will be set in the same world but follow different characters.

(L-R) Noah Jupe and director John Krasinski and on the set of Paramount Pictures' "A Quiet Place Part II."

Since Krasinski is busy with other projects (he’s currently directing a fantasy film called ‘Imaginary Friends’, in which he appears alongside Ryan Reynolds and Steve Carell), the job of directing ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ has gone to another director.

Originally, that was to be ‘Midnight Special’ and ‘Mud’s Jeff Nichols, but one of his own movies drew him away from the spin-off.

A replacement was found in ‘Pig’ director Michael Sarnoski, working from a script by Krasinski and Nichols.

Little is known about the new movie beyond its setting and the idea that it’ll chronicle people attempting to survive this post-apocalyptic new world beyond the original family. It seems unlikely that Blunt’s Evelyn Abbott will appear.

But we can look forward to her return in a third main ‘A Quiet Place’ film, which isn’t expected until 2025 (not surprising given Krasinski’s schedule). Paramount is hoping to keep building on the movies, with more spin-offs likely if ‘Day One’ is a success.

Nyong’o will be back on our screens as Nakia in Marvel sequel ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’, which will be out on Friday, November 11th.

‘A Quiet Place: Day One’, meanwhile, is scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 8th, 2024.