Gurira is well known for her portrayal of Michonne in The Walking Dead and Okoye in Black Panther.

(L-R): Danai Gurira as Okoye and Angela Bassett as Ramonda in Marvel Studios' BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER. Photo by Eli Adé. © 2022 MARVEL. (L-R): Danai Gurira as Okoye and Angela Bassett as Ramonda in Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER. Photo by Eli Adé. © 2022 MARVEL.

Actress Danai Gurira is well known for her role as the katana-welding Michonne on AMC’s post-apocalyptic series The Walking Dead. Gurira reprised her role as Michonne in the highly anticipated spinoff The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. Fans long for the return of Okoye, a character the actress portrays in Marvel’s Black Panther movies.

In 2021 The Hollywood Reporter broke the news about an Okoye spinoff for Disney+, a deal brokered by Jaime Mandelbaum. The deal secured Gurira’s return to the Black Panther franchise and the spinoff series. Since that time there hasn’t been any new regarding the spinoff.

Games Radar recently discovered news about the series, and it isn’t good. In an interview with Pay or Wait, Brad Winderbaum, Marvel’s head of streaming, television, and animation, confirmed that the Okoye series has been scrapped. But with the bad comes some good news.

Winderbaum had this to say about Okoye: “I think fans of Okoye are going to be excited to see her come back, but I don’t think it’s going to be in a television show. I can’t say where and when, but I think there’s a lot to look forward to.”

Danai Gurira’s other roles

Marvel Studios' BLACK PANTHER Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER..Okoye (Danai Gurira)..Ph: Film Frame..©Marvel Studios 2018

Gurira portrayed Okoye in several Marvel movies including Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. It will be exciting to see where the character fits into the future stories within the MCU.

TOWL_106_GP_0503_0370-RT Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, Danai Gurira as Michonne, Cailey Fleming as Judith, Anthony Azor as RJ – The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live _ Season 1, Episode 6 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC

The actress was introduced as Michonne Hawthorn in The Walking Dead’s third season. Michonne made a brief appearance in the final scenes of season 2 but was portrayed by an unknown stand-in as Gurira had yet to be cast. She continued Michonne’s journey until the tenth season when, upon discovering that her true love, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), had not died, she departed the series in search of him.

In 2024, Gurira and Lincoln returned to TWDU in the spinoff The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live which continued their epic love story. This series also revealed much more about the CRM (Civic Republic Military) and saw the duo reunited with their children.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is now streaming on Netflix.

Next, Gurira will star in an adventure-comedy, Matchbox, based on the toy brand. Directed by Sam Hargrave, known for the Netflix original Extraction, Matchbox will also star John Cena, Jessica Biel, Sam Richardson, Arturo Castro, Teyonah Parris, Randeep Hooda, and Corey Stoll. Filming for the movie began in Budapest in Jan. 2025.