Da 5 Bloods First-Look Photos Previews Spike Lee's Vietnam War Drama

The first official photos for Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee’s forthcoming epic Vietnam war drama Da 5 Bloods have been released, providing us with our first-look at the main cast. Starring Chadwick Boseman, the film will be available for streaming on Friday, June 12, exclusively on Netflix. Check out the photos below! (via Vanity Fair)

DA 5 BLOODS Streams June 12th Globally.

⁦@strongblacklead⁩ ⁦@NetflixFilm⁩ https://t.co/8J8Ivc2184

— Spike Lee (@SpikeLeeJoint) May 14, 2020

In an interview with the outlet, Lee has also revealed new details on the film’s characters and key moments, confirming that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1969 assassination will be a very pivotal moment in the film.

““Let me tell you a story,” Lee said. “The United States Armed Forces came close to being torn apart when black soldiers heard that Dr. King was assassinated. They also heard that their brothers and sisters were tearing shit up in over 100 cities across America. The tipping point came very close; the black soldiers were getting ready to set it off in Vietnam—and not against the Vietcong either.”

The director also explained why he made Delroy Lindo’s character Paul a Donald Trump supporter who wears a MAGA hat throughout the movie. “It’s something that my mother taught me very early on, She’d say, ‘Spike, all black people ain’t the same. All black people don’t look alike, or think alike.’ So we’ve got this group, and I had to show some type of diversity amongst these African American men. They can’t be all alike—that’s not only stupid, it’s not dramatic. […] And there are a small minority of black folks who drank the orange Kool-Aid. To make him more dramatic, Paul is a MAGA-hat-wearing motherfucker.”

Da 5 Bloods follows the story of four African American veterans who return to Vietnam. Searching for the remains of their fallen squad leader and the promise of buried treasure, our heroes battle forces of man and nature – while confronted by the lasting ravages of the immorality of the Vietnam War.

The film will star Delroy Lindo (Malcolm X), Jonathan Majors (White Boy Rick), Paul Walter Hauser (Late Night), Jean Reno (Léon: The Professional) and Chadwick Boseman (42, Black Panther). It will also feature BlacKkKlansman stars Isiah Whitlock Jr. and Jasper Pääkkönen along with Norm Lewis (Scandal), and Clarke Peters (The Wire), and french actress Melanie Thierry (The Zero Theorem) .

It is directed and produced by Spike Lee, who also co-write the screenplay with Kevin Willmott, Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo. Lloyd and Beatriz Levin will also serve as producers along with Jon Kilik.

The project will mark the fourth collaboration between the streaming service and Lee, whom have both worked on the Netflix special Rodney King, time-travelling film See You Yesterday and the now cancelled comedy-drama series She’s Gotta Have It which was based on Lee’s 1986 film of the same name.

Coming off from the success of BlacKkKlansman, Lee has successfully won two Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay along with Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, and Kevin Willmott. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Adam Driver), Best Original Music Score (Terence Blanchard), and Best Film Editing (Barry Alexander Brown).