by Kia Morgan Smith
Jordan Peele shocked audiences with his Oscar-winning movie Get Out and for his second act, Peele plans to up the creepy factor with his new feature-film Us, starring two of Black Panther’s breakout stars.
“For my second feature, I wanted to create a monster mythology,” Peele tells EW. “I wanted to do something that was more firmly in the horror genre but still held on to my love of movies that are twisted but fun.”
Peele is keeping most of the details about the upcoming film secret but what we do know is that two Wakandan warriors Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke are on deck to play a loving couple who end up on a hellish holiday vacay with their kids.
“It turns into this relentless nightmare that taps into [Adelaide’s] deepest fears and ours as well — the idea that we might be our own worst enemies,” Nyong’o said.
According to the movie description: The couple “take their kids to Adelaide’s old childhood beachside home in Northern California for the summer. After a day at the beach with the Tyler family (which includes Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker), Adelaide — who’s haunted by a lingering trauma from her past — becomes increasingly more paranoid that something bad will happen to her family. As night falls, the Wilsons see four figures holding hands and standing silently at the bottom of their driveway.”
In an exclusive first look at the highly anticipated movie, Nyong’o told EW that she didn’t have to think twice about assuming a leading role in Peele’s project.
“He was on my wish list of people to work with,” Nyong’o said, adding that she was a fan of Get Out. “The very fact that I have not done anything like it was appealing, because it promised growth and excitement and new territory.”
Peele instructed her to view 10 classic horror films so the two would develop “a shared language”: Dead Again, The Shining, The Babadook, It Follows, A Tale of Two Sisters, The Birds, Funny Games, Martyrs, Let the Right One In, and The Sixth Sense.
Peele said he paired Nyong’o with Duke, who played M’Baku in Black Panther because the two seem to have some real chemistry bubbling online.
“I could see signs of them flirting online — they’re both flirts in general — you could see the couple in them who would want to be together, so the chemistry is just on,” the filmmaker says.
Duke, who plays the dad in the film explains: “It was important for me to not come off as a warrior in this film.”
“He’s very sporadic and impulsive, he’s the husband and the alpha, and I think that leads to some of the conflict that is in the marriage when we meet the Wilsons.”
Peele took to social media (@JordanPeele) to share the movie poster and a cryptic warning: “Watch yourself.”
Us is set for release in March 2019.
