The Good Lord Bird star Joshua Caleb Johnson will play opposite Adrienne Warren and Cedric Joe as the newest addition to the recurring cast of ABC’s Women Of The Movement, according to Deadline. The limited series event from creator writer Marissa Jo Cerar will be produced by a team of Hollywood’s brightest stars including Jay Z, Will Smith and Aaron Kaplan.
The limited series will be six episodes long, taking place in 1955, according to Deadline. The drama will center around Mamie Till-Mobley (Warren), who risks her life to find justice after her son Emmett (Joe) is brutally murdered in the Jim Crow South. She refuses to let her son’s murder disappear from the headlines. Bearing her pain on the world stage Mamie emerges as an activist for justice igniting the Civil Rights Movement recorded in history.
Johnson plays Wheeler Parker Jr., the beloved best friend of Emmet and cousin. Emmett went on vacation to Mississippi in 1955 with him. The vacation ended in tragedy and both of their lives would never be the same. Rounding out the cast will be co-stars Chris Coy (Cinemax’s Banshee), Julia McDermott (Make That Deux), Carter Jenkins (Aliens In The Attic), Tonya Pinkins (All My Children) and Glynn Turman (Ma Riney’s Black Bottom), according to Deadline.
Jay Z, Jay Brown and Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith with Roc Nation, Will Smith and James Lassiter of Overbrook will executive produce the series along with Kaplan, Dana Honor and Micheal Lohmann for Kapital Entertainment. More executive producers of the series include Cerar, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Rosana Grace of Serendipity Film Group, Alex Foster and John Powers Middleton of Middleton Media Group and David Clark of Mazo Partners, according to Deadline.
Most recently Johnson has starred opposite Ethan Hawke (Training Day) in the Showtime and Blumhouse limited series The Good Lord Bird, based on the James McBride novel. His breakout role in the Showtime series as Henry “Onion” Shackleford earned him a Critics Choice Award nomination. Johnson will next be seen in the upcoming Blumhouse Amazon Studios film Bingo, directed and co written by Gigi Saul Guerrero. Johnson also has a recurring role on the fourth season of FX series Snowfall as Dwayne Baxter.