Reteaming after their mega-hit Get Out, Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield are leading the new drama Judas and the Black Messiah. Following the true story of the betrayal and assassination of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Black Panther Party, the film marks the feature debut of Shaka King and produced by Ryan Coogler. See the official synopsis below.
In 1968, a young, charismatic activist named Fred Hampton became Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, who were fighting for freedom, the power to determine the destiny of the Black community, and an end to police brutality and the slaughter of Black people.
Chairman Fred was inspiring a generation to rise up and not back down to oppression, which put him directly in the line of fire of the government, the FBI and the Chicago Police. But to destroy the revolution, they had to do it from both the outside…and the inside. Facing prison, William O’Neal is offered a deal by the FBI: if he will infiltrate the Black Panthers and provide intel on Hampton, he will walk free. O’Neal takes the deal.
Now a comrade in arms in the Black Panther Party, O’Neal lives in fear that his treachery will be discovered even as he rises in the ranks. But as Hampton’s fiery message draws him in, O’Neal cannot escape the deadly trajectory of his ultimate betrayal.
While Warner Bros. had originally set the film for an August release, it pushed back to 2021 and a theatrical release has been confirmed though no specific date has been announced yet. Ahead of the release, the fierce first trailer has arrived, and if the look recalls another recent Kaluuya film, you are not mistaken as it was shot by Sean Bobbitt, who worked with the star on Widows.
See the trailer below for the film also starring Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback, Ashton Sanders, and Martin Sheen.
Judas and the Black Messiah arrives in 2021.