Film  

Watch Daniel Kaluuya Play US Revolutionary In Judas And The Black Messiah

By Modupeoluwa Adekanye

07 August 2020   |   10:44 am

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Chairman Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced a petty criminal named William O’Neal to help them silence him and the Black Panther Party. But they could not kill Fred Hampton’s legacy and, 50 years later, his words about revolution still echo, maybe louder than ever. “Judas…

Chairman Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced a petty criminal named William O’Neal to help them silence him and the Black Panther Party.

But they could not kill Fred Hampton’s legacy and, 50 years later, his words about revolution still echo, maybe louder than ever. “Judas and the Black Messiah” is the name of the film that aims to tell this story. And Warner Bros. has released the blazing first trailer for it.

“You can kill a freedom fighter but you can’t kill freedom,” declares Daniel Kaluuya, in the dramatic trailer for a new film about the life of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.

The British actor plays Hampton, an enigmatic activist and organiser, who was killed in a co-ordinated raid by the FBI and Chicago Police in 1969.

Opposite him is Lakeith Stanfield as William O’Neal, the FBI informant who infiltrated the Black Panthers and provided information that led to Hampton’s death.

The film was scheduled to be released on August 21, 2020, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was pulled from the schedule, this first trailer says it’ll still be “only in theaters.”

Called Judas and the Black Messiah, the movie is now due for release in early 2021, into a world that will have changed irrevocably since filming began in Ohio last September. The director and co-writer, Shaka King wrote:

We started making it prior to the George Floyd killing and the rebellions that followed. I’ve never been in this kind of position where the attitude of the audience is so caught up to the message that you’re trying to convey, but I think the message of the movie is consistent no matter when its viewed.

Producer Ryan Coogler, who joined the project shortly after completing the Marvel blockbuster Black Panther, says Hampton’s story has “become more relevant with context”.

The people that were responsible for this, a lot of them are still alive. These ideas are still ever-present, these systems that Chairman was fighting for to be demolished – the constant attacks on poor people, on black people, those systems are still here. We’re still fighting the same beast, we’re still fighting the same monsters, we are still fighting the same system, you know, and they haven’t gone anywhere.

Watch the trailer below: