David Simon may have inadvertently announced the premiere date for his anticipated limited series, We Own This City, at HBO. On January 15, HBO’s The Wire and The Plot Against America creator responded to a fan’s tweet wanting him to create “a movie to come out or @HBOMax series!” related to the investigation of the Baltimore Police Department’s corrupt drug task force. You can see the original tweet and Simon’s quote retweet below.
Simon, who is known for his socially topical TV series usually centered around the city of Baltimore, simply responded with a date and time: “April 25, 9 pm, HBO.”
A video reel from HBO released earlier this year confirmed the series was set for a 2022 premiere. Now, via the creator himself, viewers know the show will come in late April.
Based on the investigative book We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption written by Baltimore Sun journalist, Justin Fenton, the six-episode limited series will detail the rabid corruption that eroded the city’s Gun Trace Task Force. For years, the specially-trained, plain-clothes officers committed atrocities against citizens and criminals to keep their pockets and jail cells full to capacity. The unit’s dramatic fall seemed to begin with the investigation into the police-involved killing of Freddie Grey in 2015.
The series is set to star Jon Bernthal (The Premise, The Punisher), Josh Charles (The Good Wife, Threesome), and The Wire alumn, Jamie Hector, as the corrupt police officers. According to Variety, they will be joined by a cast that includes former The Wire actors Chris Clanton (LUV), Jermaine Crawford (A Mother’s Prayer), Nathan E. Corbett (Half Nelson), and Tray Chaney (Streets) as well as Thaddeus Street (The Deuce).
Simon will serve as executive producer along with George Pelecanos (King Suckerpunch, The Night Gardener) and Ed Burns (The Culture High, The Wire). They are joined by executive producers Kary Antholis (The Shadow of Hate, Elvis Presley: The Searcher), Nina K. Noble (The Deuce, Shot in the Heart), and Reinaldo Marcus Green (Monsters and Men, King Richard), who will also direct. Bill Zorzi (The Wire, Show Me A Hero) will serve as co-executive producer with Dwight Watkins (The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir) writing.
You can view the full HBO and HBO Max 2022 premieres video below.