The Underground Railroad

New series based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

The Underground Railroad chronicles Cora Randall’s (played by Thuso Mbedu) desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. After escaping a Georgia plantation for the rumored Underground Railroad, Cora discovers no mere metaphor, but an actual railroad full of engineers and conductors, and a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil.

Over the course of her journey, Cora is pursued by Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton), a bounty hunter who is fixated on bringing her back to the plantation she escaped; especially since her mother Mabel is the only one he has never caught.

As she travels from state to state, Cora contends with the legacy of the mother who left her behind and her own struggles to realize a life she never thought was possible.

The series stars Thuso Mbedu, Joel Edgerton, and Chase W. Dillon as Homer, an enslaved 10-year-old boy. Barry Jenkins, who previously directed the Oscar-award winning film Moonlight, as well as the James Baldwin adaptation If Beale Street Could Talk, directed the series. Whitehead also serves as an executive producer.

Jenkins told IndieWire that directing The Underground Railroad was the most emotionally grueling experience of his professional life. “It’s the toughest thing I’ve ever done, not because it was difficult to make physically, but just emotionally,” Jenkins shared in April. “I’ve never cried on set with anything I’ve made. On this one, at least once every two weeks somebody would be like ‘you all right man?’”

The limited series also stars Aaron Pierre, William Jackson Harper, Sheila Atim, Amber Gray, Peter De Jersey, Chukwudi Iwuji, Damon Herriman, Lily Rabe, Irone Singleton, Mychal-Bella Bowman, Marcus “MJ” Gladney, Jr., Will Poulter, and Peter Mullan.