Barry Jenkins’ ‘The Underground Railroad’ to premiere on Amazon in May

The limited series will be available in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

Feb 25, 2021

Barry Jenkins‘ highly anticipated Amazon Original series The Underground Railroad will debut this spring.

The 10-episode limited drama series will drop May 14 exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

Based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Underground Railroad chronicles Cora Randall’s (newcomer Thuso Mbedu) desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. After escaping a Georgia plantation for the rumored Underground Railroad, Cora discovers no mere metaphor, but an actual railroad full of engineers and conductors, and a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil.

Over the course of her journey, Cora is pursued by Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton), a bounty hunter who is fixated on bringing her back to the plantation she escaped; especially since her mother Mabel is the only one he has never caught. As she travels from state to state, Cora contends with the legacy of the mother that left her behind and her own struggles to realize a life she never thought was possible.

The Underground Railroad stars Mbedu, Edgerton, and Chase W. Dillon. Aaron Pierre, Sheila Atim, Amber Gray, Peter De Jersey, Chukwudi Iwuji, Damon Herriman, Irone Singleton, Mychal-Bella Bowman, Marcus “MJ” Gladney, Jr., Will Poulter, and Peter Mullan round out the cast.

Jenkins serves as showrunner and directs all ten episodes of the series. He executive produces alongside Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Brad Pitt, Richard Heus, Jacqueline Hoyt, and Colson Whitehead.

“I’ve been trying to figure out how to describe the show, and I think you can’t describe all of it in one, because from state to state, the tone of the show and the journey shift,” said Jenkins, per IndieWire. “I think it’s one of the beautiful things about Cora in the book; from Georgia, to South Carolina, to North Carolina, to Tennessee, to Indiana. It’s almost as though Cora is manifesting each new world she’s entering. We always talk about world-building. And I love that in this show, we have all these different worlds that are built out of the consciousness of this character, of this Black woman.”

Watch the teaser above.

Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!

TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!