Danai Gurira to headline NYC stage production of 'Richard III'

Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Black Panther and The Walking Dead icon Danai Gurira is set to play the title role in The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of Richard III in New York this summer.

Slave Play director Robert O'Hara is helming the history play.

Performances are ticketed but free.

"It has been over 30 years since Richard III was produced at The Delacorte and I'm excited to bring one of drama's all-time favorite villains back onto the Central Park stage," O'Hara said in a statement Wednesday.

"Richard III speaks to the dangerous machinations that we have witnessed by leaders throughout history, but most acutely in recent years in our own government. While navigating the projections of those around him by his decision to 'prove the villain,' Richard is our unreliable narrator, protagonist, and antagonist, drawing us deeper and deeper into his murderous mayhem. I am thrilled to collaborate again with the brilliant, multi-talented Danai Gurira as she returns to The Delacorte in the title role of this infamous usurper King, full of bloody confrontations, political intrigue, and familial toxicity."

Performance schedules and complete casting will be announced at a later date.