Thuso Mbedu – Black Cinema Connection

Release Date: 5/14/21 – Series Premiere; Amazon
Genre: Drama
Rating: NR
Director: Barry Jenkins
Studio(s): Amazon Studios, Big Indie Pictures, PASTEL, Plan B Entertainment

Cast: Thuso Mbedu as Cora Randall; Chase W. Dillon as Homer; Aaron Pierre as Caesar; Joel Edgerton as Ridgeway; Damon Herriman as Martin; William Jackson Harper as Royal; Amber Gray as Gloria Valentine; Jim Klock as Tom Hardman; Lily Rabe as Ethel Wells; Lucius Baston as Prideful; Fred Hechinger as Young Ridgeway; Owen Harn as Chandler.

Details: The Underground Railroad is an upcoming American historical fiction limited television series set to premiere on Amazon Video. The project is based on Colson Whitehead’s bestselling novel The Underground Railroad, which won a Pulitzer Prize a month after Amazon bought the adaptation. The book drew critical praise for its imaginative blend of history and magical fable, moving beyond the boundaries of realism in its depiction of a mythical underground train that transports slaves across an alternate America.

Story: The story centers on young Cora, a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. The underground railroad is no mere metaphor — engineers and conductors operate a network of tracks and tunnels constructed in secret beneath the very Southern soil upon which they’ve been enslaved. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, a city that initially seems like a haven. But its placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, a relentless slave catcher of mythic origin, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state-by-state, seeking true freedom in a heroine’s journey carved through the soil and soul of America. Source: Deadline; Wikipedia.

Official Teaser: