It’s been an interesting year for Ethan Hawke. He’s already taken on Nikola Tesla (in Tesla), and now he’s re-imagining abolitionist icon John Brown in Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird, based on the novel of the same name by James McBride. Also starring Hamilton‘s Daveed Diggs as Frederick Douglass, the series premieres this Sunday, October 4.
Hawke’s interpretation of Brown, who met his Maker two months after the raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859, appears as comical as it does unhinged. And the actor could play the part any way his heart desired, seeing as he created the series.
You can check out the trailer and an official synopsis below.
Ethan Hawke stars as abolitionist John Brown in this Limited Event Series produced by Blumhouse Television based on the award-winning novel. The story is told from the point of view of “Onion,” a fictional enslaved boy who becomes a member of Brown’s motley family of abolitionist soldiers battling slavery in Kansas, and eventually finds himself in the famous 1859 Army depot raid at Harpers Ferry, an inciting incident of the Civil War. It’s a humorous and dramatic tale of Antebellum America and the ever-changing roles of race, religion and gender in American society.
