Washington Black
Esi Edugyan’s acclaimed historical drama, released in 2018, is now a motion picture.
Washington Black is an eleven-year-old field slave who knows no other life than the Barbados sugar plantation where he was born.
When his master’s eccentric brother chooses him to be his manservant, Wash is terrified of the cruelties he is certain await him. But Christopher Wilde, or “Titch,” is a naturalist, explorer, scientist, inventor, and abolitionist.
Titch begins to educate Wash, showing him a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky; where two people, separated by an impossible divide, might begin to see each other as human; and where a boy born in chains can embrace a life of dignity and meaning. But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash’s head, Titch abandons everything to save him.
What follows is their flight along the eastern coast of America, and, finally, to a remote outpost in the Arctic, where Wash, left on his own, must invent another new life, one which will propel him further across the globe.
Executive produced by and starring Sterling K. Brown, Washington Black the movie follows the extraordinary journey of George Washington “Wash” Black.
From the blistering cane fields of Barbados to the icy wastes of the Canadian Arctic, from the mud-drowned streets of London to the eerie deserts of Morocco, Washington Black teems with all the strangeness and mystery of life. Inspired by a true story, Washington Black is the extraordinary tale of a world destroyed and made whole again.
Told across two timelines, the series follows Wash as he grows into a free man navigating love, legacy, and the shadows of his past. Along the way, he forms an unexpected bond with a steam-punk-inspired inventor, travels across continents, and falls for Tanna Goff (Iola Evans), a woman hiding secrets of her own.
Ernest Kingsley Jr. leads the series as the older Wash, while Eddie Karanja portrays his younger self. Tom Ellis stars as Christopher “Titch” Wilde, the eccentric inventor whose early relationship with Wash sets the story in motion. Brown plays Medwin Harris, a self-made man and community leader who becomes a mentor and protector to Wash in 19th-century Black Halifax.
The cast also includes Rupert Graves, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Edward Bluemel, Billy Boyd, Charles Dance, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Shaunette Renée Wilson, and Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine.
The eight-episode series premieres July 23, 2025 on Hulu.
