Below you’ll find a clip from the upcoming new AMC post-Civil War drama series titled Hell On Wheels, one of 7 or so Civil War-themed projects (TV and film) currently in development at various studios.
This one co-stars rapper-turned-actor Common, who plays a character named Elam – a freed, bi-racial slave who heads west to find work, while also hoping to find his place in society, as he doesn’t feel that he fits squarely into either the “black world” or the “white world.”
The series is being billed as a Western, and centers on a former soldier in the Confederate Army who, in searching for the Union soldiers who killed his wife, finds his way to a lawless town called Hell on Wheels, and to the construction of the first transcontinental railroad.
As TV Guide states, it “will explore what immigrants went through, the problems faced by newly emancipated blacks, and the greed and corruption involved with the making of the railroad.
I’ve enjoyed most of AMC’s original programming lately, but this isn’t one that’s high on my list to see. Though I’m curious to see how many other black actors get work because of this, and what their respective roles are.
It’s scheduled to debut this fall.
Watch the clip below:
