Showtime has released the first trailer for The Good Lord Bird. Based on the award-winning book by James McBride, the limited series stars Ethan Hawke as abolitionist John Brown and newcomer Joshua Caleb Johnson. The seven-part series is produced by Blumhouse. Daveed Diggs also guest stars in the series as Frederick Douglass.

The official description: THE GOOD LORD BIRD is told from the point of view of Onion (Johnson), a fictional enslaved boy who becomes a member of Brown’s motley family of abolitionist soldiers during Bleeding Kansas – a time when the state was a battleground between pro- and anti-slavery forces – and eventually finds himself participating in the famous 1859 raid on the U.S. Armory at Harpers Ferry. Brown’s raid failed to initiate the slave revolt he intended, but was the event that started the Civil War. THE GOOD LORD BIRD weaves a humorous, dramatic and historical tapestry of Antebellum America, spotlighting the complicated and ever-changing racial, religious and gender roles that make up the American identity.

Ellar Coltrane, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Beau Knapp (Seven Seconds), Nick Eversman, Jack Alcott, Mo Brings Plenty also star. Guest stars (Yellowstone). Other guest stars include David Morse, Steve Zahn, Maya Hawke, Wyatt Russell (Lodge 49) and Orlando Jones (American Gods) as The Rail Man.

The series is executive produced by Jason Blum, Ethan Hawke, Ryan Hawke, Mark Richard, Padraic McKinley, Jeremy Gold, Marci Wiseman, Albert Hughes, James McBride, Brian Taylor, Marshall Persinger and David Schiff.

Watch the trailer below:

 

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Daveed Diggs Joins Showtime’s Upcoming Limited Series ‘The Good Lord Bird’ As Frederick Douglass