--- title: Lupita Nyong'o: Maz Kanata Back in Star Wars: Episode VIII description: Debunking rumors that Maz Kanata doesn't appear in Star Wars: Episode VIII, Lupita Nyong'o confirmed that she has shot scenes for the film. canonical: https://time.com/4502780/lupita-nyongo-maz-kanata-star-wars-episode-viii/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-21T16:14:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:39.165Z og:title: Lupita Nyong'o Confirms Maz Kanata Will Be in Star Wars: Episode VIII og:description: The mysterious space pirate is back og:url: https://time.com/4502780/lupita-nyongo-maz-kanata-star-wars-episode-viii/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Lupita Nyong'o Confirms Maz Kanata Will Be in Star Wars: Episode VIII twitter:description: The mysterious space pirate is back twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Lupita Nyong'o Confirms Maz Kanata Will Be in _Star Wars: Episode VIII_ > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 21, 2016 4:14 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 21, 2016 4:14 PM UTC Debunking rumors that [Maz Kanata](http://time.com/3845835/lupita-nyongo-star-wars-name/) doesn’t appear in [_Star Wars: Episode VIII_](http://time.com/4490070/adam-driver-star-wars-episode-viii-similar-empire-strikes-back/), [Lupita Nyong’o](http://time.com/4420739/black-panther-movie-cast/) — who plays the computer-generated space pirate — confirmed that she has shot scenes for the upcoming installment in the space fantasy saga. The 33-year-old actress chatted about her recent _Vogue_ cover during Tuesday’s episode of _The Ellen DeGeneres Show_ before addressing the gossip surrounding her role in the galaxy far, far away. “I don’t know where this rumor came from — I have no idea. It hurt my feelings,” she told the host. “I’ve shot my scenes…You know you never really know when you shoot your scenes in a movie which ones are going to make it and all that, so it’s always fingers crossed. But as far as I know I’m in it.” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4502780/lupita-nyongo-maz-kanata-star-wars-episode-viii/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4502780/lupita-nyongo-maz-kanata-star-wars-episode-viii/"},"headline":"Lupita Nyong'o Confirms Maz Kanata Will Be in Star Wars: Episode VIII","datePublished":"2016-09-21T16:14:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:39.165Z","description":"The mysterious space pirate is back","url":"https://time.com/4502780/lupita-nyongo-maz-kanata-star-wars-episode-viii/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","movies","Star Wars","Lupita Nyong'o","Ellen Degeneres","TV","The Ellen Degeneres Show","Star Wars Episode VIII"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4502780/lupita-nyongo-maz-kanata-star-wars-episode-viii/","name":"Lupita Nyong'o Confirms Maz Kanata Will Be in Star Wars: Episode VIII"}}]}] ```