Viola Davis Drops Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Trailer With Chadwick Boseman

Sadly, the late Chadwick Boseman, star of Black Panther, has passed away, but his work will always be with us — and some of it has yet to be seen. The actor can be seen this December in the Netflix film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and now his co-star, Viola Davis, has shared the film’s new trailer.

Viola Davis Reveals First Look

“Ah-one…Ah-two…you know what to do,” wrote Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder), who stars in the film, on her Instagram account. “@Chadwickboseman, @kingofbingo, Michael Potts, Glynn Turman, @dusanbrown, @taylour and myself star in @MaRaineyFilm, directed by George C. Wolfe. Coming to @Netflix December 18.”

The setting for the film is Chicago in the year 1927. There’s conflict between Ma Rainey (Davis), her ambitious horn player Levee (Boseman), and the white management that’s hellbent on controlling her career. The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by August Wilson.

George C. Wolfe directed this film from a screenplay by Ruben Santiago-Hudson (ex-Billy Cooper, Another World). The film’s producers are Todd Black, Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington, and Dany Wolf. The drama takes place during a fateful recording session.

The film was originally going to be produced by HBO along with nine other plays by Wilson. Later, the deal moved to Netflix. Filming starting in July 8, 2019 in Pittsburgh and wrapped the following month on August 16. Boseman died a little over a year later on August 28, 2020, of colon cancer while the film was in post-production. This marks Boseman’s final screen appearance.

Davis, a working actress for years, shot to stardom in the ABC primetime serial drama How to Get Away with Murder, winning the 2015 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as law professor Annalise Keating. She went on to win both the Oscar and a Golden Globe for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Supporting Role (in a Motion Picture) for her performance as Rose Maxson in the film Fences.

Rome Flynn, who played Gabriel Maddox on HTGAWM, posted: “can’t wait for this.” @whosbrandon1 added: “This is possibly gonna give Viola another Oscar, and give Chadwick a posthumous one.”