Ava DuVernay, Lupita Nyong’o and Tiffany Haddish are leading the next wave of Black women who are transforming film and TV. Is Hollywood ready for its #BlackGirlMagic moment?
The 1920s saw Black writers, artists and musicians bring the dazzle of Black life to the forefront of America culture with the Harlem Renaissance. Today, we may be on the cusp of a new Black creative Golden Age, this time headed by filmmakers, actors and writers who are challenging themselves and inspiring each other to transform the way our stories are told — and Black women are leading the way. Here are some of the projects we’re most looking forward to from sisters who are killing the game in Hollywood.
At the movies
Fresh off the box office triumph of
Girls Trip,
Regina Hall can next be seen in the girl power comedy
Support the Girls (Aug. 24), where she’ll star as a caring restaurant manager who rallies around a waitress with an abusive boyfriend.
Hall’s
Girls Trip costar
Tiffany Haddish, who costars with Tracy Morgan in
The Last O.G. on TBS (which has been picked up for a second season), will share the screen with another comedy powerhouse — Kevin Hart — in
Night School (Sept. 28
). The comedy follows a group of outsiders attending adult GED classes.
The ever-busy Regina Hall returns to theaters in the much-anticipated adaptation of Angie Thomas’ novel
The Hate U Give (Oct. 19), in which she plays the mother of a teen (
Amandla Stenberg) who witnesses the murder of her childhood best friend by police.
Taraji P. Henson is following
Proud Mary and
Acrimony next year with the race and gender-bending big screen comedy
What Men Want, a reimagining of the 2000 Mel Gibson film
What Women Want (January 2019).
Oscar winner
Lupita Nyong’o will step out of Wakanda and into two projects. First up, Jordan Peele’s
Us, a “social horror thriller” slated for March 2019. Then, she’ll star as an assassin in
The Killer, a remake of famed Hong Kong director John Woo’s acclaimed 1989 action film.
Thirteen-year-old
Marsai Martin of
Black-ish came up with a movie idea, and now she’ll costar with
Issa Rae and executive produce
Little, about a woman who gets a chance to relive her childhood years (September 2019).
Victoria Mahoney made history when she was announced as a second unit director for the next
Star Wars installment,
Episode IX (2019), making her the first black woman in a director’s chair in the franchise’s more-than-40-year run.
With
A Wrinkle in Time,
Ava DuVernay became the first woman of color to direct a live action film that grossed more than $100 million. Her next big screen project will be
New Gods, based on the DC Comics series.
Next year,
Love & Basketball writer-director
Gina Prince-Bythewood, will helm
Silver & Black, based on Marvel Comic characters.
In your living room
Songtress
Patti Labelle blesses the small screen with a recurring role in Season 3 of OWN’s megachurch drama
Greenleaf. Labelle will play Maxine, the CEO of a global Christian self-help empire, who becomes a confidante of matriarch Lady Mae Greenleaf (
Lynn Whitfield). The new season premieres Aug. 28.
In addition to her film projects, Ava DuVernay is also set to helm
Central Park Five for Netflix. The four-part series, based on the true story, will air next year.
Two-time Emmy winner
Regina King, who starred in the heartbreaking drama
Seven Seconds this year, will next lead the HBO series adaptation of the 2009 film
Watchmen, based on the DC Comics series of the same name.
Director
Dee Rees, who earned a best adapted screenplay Oscar nomination for
Mudbound, returns to Netflix to direct, produce and cowrite an adaptation of author Joan Didion’s
The Last Thing He Wanted.
The legendary
Pam Grier is shooting a pilot for Fox titled
Bless This Mess, in which she plays a charismatic Nebraska sheriff.
Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright
Suzan Lori-Parks is writing a screenplay for a Billie Holiday biopic that will star
Andra Day.
