Rumors come hand in hand with high profile films, and so no movie deals with more rumors that Star Wars: Episode VIII. However, many rumors don't survive the light of day. One of the rumors going around was that Lupita Nyong'o had not filmed any scenes for Episode VIII, and thus, Maz Kanata would not be appearing in the film. The actress has debunked the rumor, by confirming the exact opposite is true.
I don't know where this rumor came from! I have no idea. It hurt my feelings. ... I shot my scenes, it's coming out -- you never really know, when you shoot your scenes in a movie, which ones are gonna make it and all that. So, it's always, 'Fingers crossed!' But as far as I know, I'm in it.
While it's unlikely that all of Maz Kanata scenes would be deleted for any reason, Lupita Nyong'o certainly understands that some of them could get lost. That already happened to her once and so it's likely that what she's thinking about in her "fingers crossed" comments on Ellen. We know that originally Maz Kanata was a much larger part of Star Wars: The Force Awakens before having the role trimmed down. It's certainly possible that the same thing could happen in Star Wars: Episode VIII, so it's impossible to say how big a role Maz will have, but it's officially confirmed that she will have a role of some kind.
It seems that the rumor got started that Lupita Nyong'o was unable to film her motion capture scenes due to other acting commitments that she had. It seems like an odd rumor. While we can only imagine how difficult it is to schedule all the actors in Hollywood so that they're all in the places they need to be at the right time, the schedule is of vital importance and not something that gets ignored or forgotten. At the same time, we're sure that Lupita Nyong'o probably has a contract with Lucasfilm that lasts through Star Wars: Episode IX at least, assuming the character makes it that far. Showing up to film her scenes isn't really an option. If she didn't do it, we'd be writing about the lawsuit right now.
Of course, now that we know that Maz Kanata will make an appearance, the rumors can now start to focus on exactly what she'll do in the new film. Her role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was mostly to bring Luke Skywalker's lightsaber into the story. Now that it has been returned to the Jedi Master, how will Maz be part of the rest of the saga? Will we get more detail on how and why she came by the object? We know, thanks to deleted scenes, that there's more to Maz Kanata than the final cut showed us, will we get to see her in action in Star Wars: Episode VIII?
