Ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, National Geographic has released the trailer for the newest installment of the Emmy Award-winning anthology series “Genius: MLK/X.”
For the first time, the docu-drama series explores the lives of two iconic geniuses: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
The first two episodes of the next installment of “Genius: MLK/X,” will premiere February 1st on National Geographic and stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, with two new episodes debuting weekly on all platforms.
(Ralph Abernathy, played by Hubert Point Du Jour, Martin Luther King Jr., played by Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Andrew Young, played by Anwar Ali, in Genius: MLK/X. – National Geographic/Richard DuCree)
In a first for the Emmy Award-winning anthology series, the eight-part series will focus on two iconic geniuses — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X — and how their dueling philosophies helped usher America through the Civil Rights Movement.
The ensemble cast includes Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Aaron Pierre as Malcolm X, Weruche Opia, as Coretta Scott King, and Jayme Lawson as Betty Shabazz. The series also marks one of the last roles for Emmy-winning actor Ron Cephas Jones.
With series like “Genius: MLK/X,” Undisputed Cinema aims to tell timely and timeless character-driven stories that focus on the humanity of people of color.
Genius: MLK/X follows both King and X from their formative years, where they were molded by strong fathers and traumatic injustices, to their rich, parallel stories as they shaped their identities and became the change they wished to see in the world.
Influenced as children by different upbringings and experiences: King by the Jim Crow-era South and life in the church before finding his voice at Morehouse and Boston University, and X growing up under the constant, deadly violence of the Klan and falling into a life of vice and incarceration where he was introduced to the Nation of Islam and found his voice. The two visionaries ultimately rose to pioneer a movement.
(Malcolm X, played by Aaron Pierre, talks with Hinton, played by Xavier Montreal Mills, on the corner outside of Harlem Temple No. 7 in GENIUS: MLK/X. – National Geographic/Richard DuCree)
The series offers a deeper look into untapped moments in their lives as husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, taking them off the iconic T-shirts to show their humanity. Genius: MLK/X brings their wives, Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz, who are often portrayed as peripheral figures, to the forefront and shows them as formidable equals of the Movement.
Episodes will explore the moments between the monumental historical events we’ve come to know and shine a light on how each leader and those closest to them questioned their faith, resolve and decisions as they navigated the rigors of balancing a public persona with a private life.
While King and X met only once and often challenged each other’s views, neither would have been as successful without the other.
(Weruche Opia as Coretta Scott King, LisaGay Hamilton as Alberta King, and Sasha Compère as Juanita Abernathy in GENIUS: MLK/X. – National Geographic/Richard DuCree)
This season is once again produced by 20th Television with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Television, as well as the company’s president of Television, Kristen Zolner, along with the award-winning duo Reggie Rock Bythewood and Gina Prince-Bythewood, who are responsible for groundbreaking films and series under their production company Undisputed Cinema. Raphael Jackson Jr. and Damione Macedon are showrunners and executive producers.
