Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyong'o join 'Black Panther'

Having stepped on board AMC's "The Walking Dead" for its third season in 2012, Danai Gurira has since become an essential member of the show and, as Michonne, becoming its lead actress by 2016's season six.

Gurira emerged on screen with a co-starring role in "The Visitor" -- a 2009 Independent Spirit Award winner for director Tom McCarthy, who this year collected an Academy Award for "Spotlight."

She followed up with appearances in New Orleans-set "Treme" (co-created by David Simon of "The Wire"), was critically acclaimed for Brooklyn drama "Mother of George," and has agreed to play the mother of US rapper Tupac Shakur in upcoming biopic "All Eyez On Me."

Joining the cast of February 2018 superhero film "Black Panther" on stage at Marvel's panel during the San Diego Comic-Con on July 23, Gurira is part of a production that has Chadwick Boseman as its lead.

With Boseman previously installed as T'Challa, the Black Panther, Marvel confirmed the other principal cast members and their roles.

Michael B. Jordan, already familiar with director Ryan Coogler from "Fruitvale Station" and 2015 "Rocky" successor "Creed," will play Black Panther's enemy Erik Killmonger.

Danai is to become Okoye, commanding the protagonist's personal body guard, and Lupita N'yongo -- an Oscar winner with "12 Years a Slave" and later of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and "The Jungle Book" -- plays Nakia, whose comic book history means she could be an ally, an enemy, or perhaps both.

"Black Panther" is scheduled for release on February 16, 2018, making it the sixth of ten features dated as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase Three.