After recently confirming a May 31st release date for When They See Us, Netflix — in partnership with Ava DuVernay— has officially released a full-length trailer for the four-part limited series about the Central Park Five. A group of teens (Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise) who were wrongfully accused and convicted of sexual assault more than thirty years ago.
The scripted series will examine in depth, the 1989 case where the five New York City teens were accused of raping a woman in Central Park, and the aftermath of the trial as it became a media circus mired in racial prejudices. The new trailer also further depicts the amount of undeserved pressure each kid was under, when being forced to confess to a crime they did not commit.
DuVernay also commented on the series’ premise in an official statement:
In 1989, five black and brown teen boys were wrongly accused of a crime they did not commit and branded The Central Park Five, a moniker that has followed them since that time. In 2019, our series gives the five men a platform to finally raise their voices and tell their full stories. In doing so, Korey, Antron, Raymond, Kevin and Yusef also tell the story of many young people of color unjustly ensnared in the criminal justice system. We wanted to reflect this perspective in our title, embracing the humanity of the men and not their politicized moniker.
The filmmaker also co-wrote and directed all four episodes, with Michael Kenneth Williams, Niecy Nash and John Leguizamo rounding out the cast as the victims parents. Joshua Jackson plays one of the teens’ defense attorneys, while Felicity Huffman plays a prosecutor and Vera Farmiga as the assistant to the D.A. involved in the case.
When They See Us will take place over the time span of twenty-five years, highlighting the victim’s initial trial, subsequent exoneration in 2002 and the eventual settlement that was reached by the city of New York in 2014.
Below the official trailer can be viewed:
TvLine originally reported this story.