Rihanna is ready for her next big screen role.
Fresh off of her much-buzzed-about Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show performance, the singer and billionaire business mogul made a surprise announcement at 2023 CinemaCon in Las Vegas last week. Rihanna showed up to reveal she’ll get animated as Smurfette in the upcoming “Smurfs” musical movie.
According to Deadline, the “Only Girl In the World” chanteuse said she will score and perform original music for the upcoming film, of which she will also serve as a producer.
“I tried to get the Papa Smurf role, but it didn’t work out,” Rihanna quipped during the Paramount Pictures presentation.
“Getting to do animation is a fun journey for me,” said the singer, who’s currently pregnant with her second child. “I’m usually front and center with everything with my likeness… but this was fun, I got to imagine, I got to show up in my pajamas in my third trimester, and be a blue badass.”
Fellow pop music superstars Demi Lovato and Katy Perry previously voiced Smurfette in the film franchise, which was spun off from the wildly popular 1980s animated series.
“Puss in Boots” filmmaker Chris Miller and editor Matt Landon will co-direct the project from a script by “South Park” writer Pam Brady. The comedy-musical adventure is set to hit theaters Valentine’s Day 2025.
Rihanna, who hasn’t released a new album since 2016′s “Anti,” flexed her acting chops in 2012′s “Battleship” and “Ocean’s 8″ in 2018. Her other projects have included the Amazon movie “Guava Island,” Luc Besson’s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” and the A&E series “Bates Motel.”
Earlier this year, Rihanna received her first Academy Award nomination — in the best song category — for “Lift Me Up” from Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
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