Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield Front Black Panther Biopic
The first trailer for “Judas and the Black Messiah” is here.
Warner Bros. has shared the official trailer for the upcoming release Judas and the Black Messiah, a biopic which follows the real-life events leading up to the assassination of the Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton.
Starring Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield, the film is directed by Shaka King, who was the 2013 winner of the Independent Spirit ‘Someone to Watch’ award – which recognises promising rising talents within the film industry.
Kaluuya plays Hampton, who was chairmain of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party before his assassination in 1969. Stanfield takes the role of William O’Neal, an FBI informant who infiltrated the Black Panther organisation as a counterintelligence operative, in exchange for having prior felony charges dropped. In the trailer, the rising tension between Hampton and O’Neal is emphasised, as the latter is forced to betray the movement for his own protection.
This marks the latest project of Kaluuya’s to engage with the United States’ history of racial injustices: after a breakthrough role in Jordan Peele’s horror-comedy Get Out, and a villainous turn in Marvel‘s Black Panther, he appeared last year in Melina Matsoukas’ debut film Queen & Slim, a reimagining of the Bonnie & Clyde story in the age of racialised police brutality.
Check out the trailer for Judas and the Black Messiah above: though no release date has formally been set, it is expected to premier later this year. While you wait for that, these are the best films and tv shows to watch in August.
