Ethan Hawke is John Brown in the trailer for The Good Lord Bird TV series

SHOWTIME has released the official poster and trailer for its new limited series The Good Lord Bird, premiering on Sunday, August 9 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Starring and executive produced by Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke, who plays the controversial abolitionist John Brown, the seven-episode series is from Blumhouse Television and based on the National Book Award-winning novel The Good Lord Bird by bestselling author James McBride.

The series is told from the point of view of Onion (Joshua Caleb Johnson), a fictional enslaved boy who becomes a member of Brown’s motley family of abolitionist soldiers during Bleeding Kansas – a time when the state was a battleground between pro- and anti-slavery forces – and eventually finds himself participating in the famous 1859 raid on the U.S. Armory at Harpers Ferry. Brown’s raid failed to initiate the slave revolt he intended, but was the event that started the Civil War. THE GOOD LORD BIRD weaves a humorous, dramatic and historical tapestry of Antebellum America, spotlighting the complicated and ever-changing racial, religious and gender roles that make up the American identity.

The series also stars Critics’ Choice winner and Screen Actors Guild Award nominee Ellar Coltrane (Boyhood), Hubert Point-Du Jour (Madam Secretary), Beau Knapp (Seven Seconds), Nick Eversman (Wild), Jack Alcott (Champaign ILL), and Mo Brings Plenty (Yellowstone). Also appearing is a roster of talented guest stars including Tony(R) Award winner Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) as abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Emmy(R) nominee David Morse (ESCAPE AT DANNEMORA) as Dutch Henry Sherman, Steve Zahn (War of the Planet of the Apes) as Chase, Maya Hawke (Stranger Things) as Annie Brown, Wyatt Russell (Lodge 49) as federal officer Jeb Stuart and Orlando Jones (American Gods) as The Rail Man. THE GOOD LORD BIRD is executive produced by Jason Blum, Ethan Hawke, Ryan Hawke, Mark Richard, Padraic McKinley, Jeremy Gold, Marci Wiseman, Albert Hughes, James McBride, Brian Taylor, Marshall Persinger, David Schiff.

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