J.J. Abrams Debunks Recent Rumors about Lupita Nyong’o’s Role in The Force Awakens

Lupita Nyong'oRecently a certain tabloid posted some rumors suggesting that Lupita Nyong’o role as Maz Kanata in The Force Awakens had been cut because her performance was not very good. We intentionally didn’t report these rumors considering the source, and now J.J. Abrams himself reveals that there is no truth to this. Quite the contrary…

 

From PageSix:

“The number of rumors floating around about ‘The Force Awakens’ is truly stunning. Some are wonderfully funny, others simply preposterous. But the only one more ridiculous than Jar Jar Binks being a Sith Lord is that I cut Lupita Nyong’o’s performance because it wasn’t satisfactory.”

“In truth, her performance wasn’t satisfactory. It was spectacular. She has brought the character of Maz Kanata to life in the most wonderful, wise, touching, deep and funny way. Lupita never ceased to amaze me. Yes, we tried many approaches, and we finally landed on just what the film needed. She elevated all the scenes she is in, I’m forever grateful, and can’t wait for people to see her stunning performance.”

 

Thanks to @SWMegafan for the heads up.

 

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Val Trichkov (Viral Hide)

Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.Born on April 24, 1980.

65 thoughts on “J.J. Abrams Debunks Recent Rumors about Lupita Nyong’o’s Role in The Force Awakens

  • December 4, 2015 at 4:23 pm
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    Do you think he actually reads the stuff from MSW or indie Revolver or is he just hearing “popular” fan speculation like Jar Jar as a Sith.

    • December 4, 2015 at 4:38 pm
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      I’m guessing he drops by every once in a while. anyway, i figured these rumors would be false. there’s no way Lupita’s performance could be THAT bad.

      • December 4, 2015 at 6:16 pm
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        No, but the truth is that 99% of her footage was unuseable because the mocap director had the wrong lenses on the cameras, so it’s all out of focus.

        Hells yeah! Gonna party like it’s 1998!

        • December 4, 2015 at 6:22 pm
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          Source?

          • December 4, 2015 at 7:37 pm
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            He’s joking

          • December 5, 2015 at 2:39 am
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            My bad, didn’t get it 🙂 (even though I actually was here for the oh, so unfortunate run up to Episode I)

          • December 5, 2015 at 2:29 am
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            AICN. They have all the scoops on the Stars War.
            (Also, if you have to ask, then you weren’t here for the run up to Episode 1 🙂 )

      • December 5, 2015 at 3:11 am
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        Yeah, do you think a director like JJ would spend weeks shooting, thinking to himself how bad it is and then wait a year to edit everything out.

    • December 4, 2015 at 4:41 pm
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      They probably have a small army of publicists tracking these things who report to him things they think he should know. The Jar Jar as a Sith thing might have been mentioned as an amusing talking point, while the bit about Lupita Nyong’o probably struck him as something he owed it to her to debunk.

    • December 4, 2015 at 4:57 pm
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      I think they have a close look at MSW and IR. Not strange since they had a lot of reveals. But JJ also stated in the past that a lot of rumors were false. Although some of them look right according to the trailers.

      But the JarJar rumor was everywhere, even normal newssites reported about it. Less than two weeks to go and we will all find out how it will become 🙂

      • December 5, 2015 at 3:13 am
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        normal newssites reported about it because of how incredibly dumb and baseless it is, and how some rabid fanboys still went and run with it.

        People believing the jar-jar-sith rumor are the same people that fall for the burning paper-bag poop joke.

  • December 4, 2015 at 4:38 pm
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    I don’t know who in the world thought that would be true. Shes on the POSTER and in half of the trailers. You don’t cut characters that important unless you are doing a total overall of the the script.

    • December 4, 2015 at 10:39 pm
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      People, man. What can you do? Why do so many people believe Luke Skywalker is Kylo Ren when we all know Adam Driver is playing the role?

      I’ll never understand how so many folks so easily believe such dumb ideas.

  • December 4, 2015 at 4:46 pm
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    The only thing that I’ve seen so far that troubles me is the First Order trooper with the flame thrower. Feel it’s a little too much for a SW movie, and its use would destroy anything in its path, including a Jedi.

    • December 4, 2015 at 4:56 pm
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      Nah just force push them away

      • December 4, 2015 at 6:06 pm
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        Can you Force push flames?

        • December 5, 2015 at 3:07 am
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          What is the difference between a flame in the air, and a laser-blast (Vader used his hand to stop Han’s blaster in EPV)

          • December 5, 2015 at 3:18 am
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            It didn’t look like Vader used the Force on the laser blasts. He just blocked them with his mechanical arms.

          • December 5, 2015 at 3:20 am
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            yeah, that worked really well all the other times when people with prosthetics had it blown to bits/damaged by laser fire.

          • December 5, 2015 at 11:51 am
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            I’ve never seen those other examples. Also, beyond seeing Vader block those shots with his hands, I don’t know HOW he was able to do it. Maybe he did use the Force.

          • December 5, 2015 at 2:25 pm
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            Luke gets hit on his hand in Return of the Jedi, in the Jabba’s barge fight scene/Sarlac pt. When he asks Leia to “point it at the deck” he gets shot in his hand, the skin flies off and his prosthetic limb is exposed (@35:24 in the SE version) after he confirms with R2 that they’re going to Dagobah, you can see the extensive damage and hear the mechanics whirr as they’re obviously no longer in prime condition.

    • December 4, 2015 at 6:17 pm
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      In a galaxy with lightsabers, blaster rifles, thermal imploders and giant planet killing deathstars you find the flamethrower troubling and too much? Jango/Boba Fett had/has a flamethrower..

      • December 4, 2015 at 7:06 pm
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        All those weapons you just mentioned are pure fantasy, and offer instantaneous death. However, being slowly burned to death at the hands of another person, that’s pretty gruesome.

        Don’t recall Boba Fett using a flamethrower. Did Jango use one in AOTC?

        • December 4, 2015 at 7:36 pm
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          Ahhh, he tried to burn Mace Windu alive!

        • December 4, 2015 at 8:12 pm
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          But being strangled by someone’s bare hands is cool?

          • December 4, 2015 at 8:52 pm
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            The movie is fantasy, characters have to die somehow, but the use of flamethrowers in my opinion, feels forced and out of place, it may momentary take me out of the movie.

          • December 4, 2015 at 9:09 pm
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            Seems like the perfect way for a totalitarian regime to burn down a village to me. Makes it more real, not less…

          • December 4, 2015 at 9:44 pm
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            Beru and Owen Lars. What happened to them?

        • December 4, 2015 at 9:07 pm
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          Same reason all our real armies are not armed all with flamethrowers. Good for unarmed civilians, not against armies with rifles that can shoot from a distance.

          • December 4, 2015 at 10:37 pm
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            Exactly. The FO troopers probably use them in situations like burning down the village, not for battle.

        • December 4, 2015 at 10:29 pm
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          Also all it takes is one good shot and the Flamethrower ignites killing all the other troopers.

        • December 4, 2015 at 10:35 pm
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          vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/8/86/JangoFlamethrower-AOTC.jpg

          He used it on Windu, who had to ditch his outer cloak as a result.

        • December 5, 2015 at 3:08 am
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          What do you think Boba used to kill Lars family and burn them to a crisp?

      • December 4, 2015 at 7:44 pm
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        and was his flamethrower in the same league as the First Order trooper’s?

    • December 4, 2015 at 7:43 pm
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      How about Owen and Beru, haven’t they been burn to death in episode 4? Sure we don’t see it happen, but I guess that’s where the idea come from!

      • December 4, 2015 at 7:49 pm
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        Weren’t they killed by stormtroopers then later their dead corpses burnt to make it look like a sand people attack?

        • December 4, 2015 at 10:28 pm
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          I’m not even sure Tusken Raiders even knew how to build a fire let alone know how to project it.

        • December 5, 2015 at 3:10 am
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          No one ever said anything about the Lars’ being killed by the imperials. When they find the trawler, they have all been killed by laser blasts, the Lars homestead had been burned to the ground.

      • December 7, 2015 at 1:31 am
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        Owen and Beru we’re killed by Boba Fett….I have ZERO proof of this, but it would just be cool if it were true. hehe

    • December 4, 2015 at 8:26 pm
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      I think a Jedi could throw the flames away from themselves or block them with the force somehow..

      • December 4, 2015 at 9:03 pm
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        Yeah, maybe.

      • December 4, 2015 at 9:10 pm
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        I’m just taking it on faith if force lightning can be blocked/absorbed/thrown back, then fire can be similarly manipulated.

    • December 4, 2015 at 10:26 pm
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      They originally used them in Clone Wars, So it’s technically been canon for years. I’m just glad we are getting a new breed of trooper that isn’t totally stolen from the OT in this one.

    • December 4, 2015 at 10:31 pm
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      If you’re right … and a flamethrower can just destroy Jedi … then hell YES the stormtroopers should have them. The troopers are an army, and that means they kill people. Plus the drama of heroes being in danger isn’t a bad thing at all.

  • December 4, 2015 at 5:11 pm
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    I’m 100% sure Lupita will be great in this movie. Besides that, if just 10% of the
    stuff we read in the tabloid press were true , then Elvis would still be alive, Big foots would be running around in every other national park / forest and the half
    the planet’s population would have been probed by aliens be now. = )

  • December 4, 2015 at 5:19 pm
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    Technically, he didn’t deny the Jar Jar rumor!

  • December 4, 2015 at 6:11 pm
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    Jar Jar is Plagueis JJ, don’t lie to us!!

    • December 4, 2015 at 7:41 pm
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      Jar Jar should’ve been Plagueis. Quietly killed in his sleep before Episode I.

      • December 5, 2015 at 3:04 am
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        This, this so much!

  • December 4, 2015 at 6:34 pm
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    Aww, now all the Jar Jar fans will be Butt-hurt..

  • December 4, 2015 at 7:49 pm
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    I don’t doubt Lupita, the character is Fugly as Binks

  • December 4, 2015 at 9:45 pm
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    I’ll hold judgment, but her voice does seem a bit too nice and clean. I think they may have fared better by hiring a god character/voice actor, but…we’ll see.

  • December 4, 2015 at 9:56 pm
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    Jar Jar Binks being Lord Snoke or a Sith Lord of course is a joke frequently seen on SW boards. I’d expect JJ Abrams to know that.

  • December 4, 2015 at 10:31 pm
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    The big question I have about her is if she really is Han’s mentor and is some kind of uber force user then why is Han so disbelieving in ANH about it? For that matter if Snoke is so ginormous and powerful as well, Why did he hide in the shadows for decades to make his move?

    • December 4, 2015 at 10:33 pm
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      “… if she really is Han’s mentor and is some kind of uber force user then why is Han so disbelieving in ANH …”

      Yup. That’s one thing that troubles me as well. In ANH, he didn’t believe in the force at all.

      • December 4, 2015 at 10:45 pm
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        but he said he saw all kinds of things plus she has been the owner of that bar for 100 years…who knows what she been doing the other 900

      • December 5, 2015 at 1:59 am
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        I guess she could not use them in fromt of him but if she’s thousands of years old then she knows a lot of people over the years, Some of who would know she can use the force and Han’s clearly not stupid when it comes to picking up second hand information like that.

    • December 4, 2015 at 11:56 pm
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      Good questions that may or may not be answered in this movie. Han could have been mentored by her after the events of the OT. Or perhaps she could have been his mentor when he was younger without using her force powers (assuming she has them, or uses them openly).

      • December 5, 2015 at 2:01 am
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        I’m guessing part of the reason they did this was to include her in the spinoff film, Maybe in a larger role?

  • December 4, 2015 at 10:52 pm
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    the ceo of fox is trying to sabotage star wars…first fox news now this from people owned by fox after having their ass raped the entire year at the box office

  • December 4, 2015 at 11:26 pm
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    I’m assuming that was the National Enquirer

  • December 5, 2015 at 5:44 am
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    Lupita giving a bad performance? They expected anyone to believe that?

Comments are closed.

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