As you’d expect from two humongous franchises, there are a lot of actors who’ve appeared in both Star Wars and the MCU. Prominent examples are Natalie Portman, Paul Bettany, Andy Serkis, and Oscar Isaac, though one Oscar-winning star clearly needs a reminder of which franchise is which.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star Lupita Nyong’o was being interviewed alongside Winston Duke when the pair were quizzed on what the first Disney Plus Marvel show was. Nyong’o jumped in excitedly to say “The Mandalorian!“, with both Duke and the interviewer laughing, before telling her she’d gotten her franchises mixed up and the right answer was WandaVision.
Even so, the official Star Wars account will take the nod:
Nyong’o really should know better after playing Maz Kanata in all three sequel trilogy movies, though we guess she hasn’t been involved in Star Wars in a while, and there’s no indication of whether Maz will ever return for future movies or shows. We still feel like there’s a lot of mileage left in her story, as she was around a thousand years old by the time we met her in The Force Awakens.
Whatever the case, the ending of Wakanda Forever indicates that Nyong’o’s Nakia will be playing a major role in upcoming Black Panther stories, so we can at least assume that character will reappear for the inevitable third entry. Details on how that’ll play out are unknown, but we may not see it until 2026 or 2027 as part of Phase Seven anyway.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now in theaters, and The Mandalorian will return for its third season in early 2023.