The Underground Railroad Trailer Previews Barry Jenkins’ Amazon Miniseries

April 15, 2021

Amazon Prime Video has released the full trailer for Oscar-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins’ limited series adaptation of The Underground Railroad, which will be available for streaming on May 14. The video provides us a better idea of difficult journey that Thuso Mbedu’s Cora will have to go through in order to reach freedom. It also highlighted the series’ stunning cinematography and gripping storytelling that are known to be present in Jenkins’ previous works. Check out the video in the player below!

Based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, the series will be set in an alternate timeline where the Underground Railroad is literally a secret railroad station, instead of the real-life network of secret routes and safe houses that were established by Abolitionists.

The Underground Railroad follows Cora, a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia who is an outcast even amongst her fellow Africans and is struggling coming into womanhood when she meets Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia who informs her of the Underground Railroad, inspiring them both to take the risk and escape to freedom.

The 11-episode limited series will chronicle Cora’s journey as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. Her journey will become even more dangerous when she will be pursued by a bounty hunter named Ridgeway, who is tasked on ringing her back to the plantation, especially since her mother Mabel is the only one he has never caught.

Pick up a copy of the novel here!

The series stars Thuso Mbedu, Chase W. Dillon, Aaron Pierre and Joel Edgerton. It will also feature Damon Herriman, William Jackson Harper, Amber Gray, Jim Klock, Lily Rabe, Fred Hechinger, and Owen Harn.

Created and directed by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk), The Underground Railroad is also executive produced by Jenkins through his Pastel Productions alongside Oscar winner Brad Pitt through his Plan B Entertainment banner. Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner are also set as executive producers.