[FIRST LOOK] Judas and the Black Messiah Prepares to hit HBO Max

The highly anticipated Judas and the Black Messiah film has started to get the ball rolling for its official release date with a world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film festival on February 1, 2021. The Judas and the Black Messiah film was originally set to be released on August 21, 2020, but was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film is now gearing for its official release date on February 12, 2021, where it will be released simultaneously in theaters as well as HBO max.

Judas and the Black Messiah is directed by Shaka King, and it takes place during the late 1960s in Illinois. According to Deadline, King says a bulk of the pic’s vision was sparked by 500 photographs of Chicago he received, which were bursting with the Kodachrome colors of the time. “Panther Green” as King calls it, was a color that the crew kept bumping into their Cleveland, OH location scouts and that became a running motif in the film.

The Judas and the Black Messiah film will walk viewers through the details of how Fred Hampton, a chairman of the Black Panther Party was betrayed at the hands of William O’ Neil, an FBI informant dedicated to ratting out Hampton with hopes of taking him down.

Fred Hampton will be played by Daniel Kaluuya who is also known for his role in Get Out and Black Panther. William O’Neil will be played by LaKeith Lee Stanfield known for his roles in Get Out and Straight Outta Compton. Jesse Plemons is taking on the role as Roy Mitchell, Dominique Fishback as Deborah Johnson, Ashton Sanders as Larry Robinson, Martin Sheen as J. Edgar Hoover, Algee Smith as Jake Winters, Lil Rey Howery as Brian, Jermaine Fowler as Mark Clark, Darrell Britt-Gibson as Bobby Rush, Dominique Thorn as Judy Harmon, Robert Longstreet as Special Agent Carlyle, and Terayle Hill as George Sams.

You can watch the trailer for Judas and the Black Messiah below: