After over four months since Netflix’s fan-favorite series Lucifer ended its six-season run, it looks like Tom Ellis has found his next TV project with Hulu’s Washington Black. Ellis has officially signed on for a series regular role opposite Sterling K. Brown in the series adaptation of Esi Edugyan’s period drama novel of the same name. He will be portraying the role of Christopher “Titch” Wilde, described as an eccentric, passionate steampunk inventor whose youthful enthusiasm masks an inner vulnerability.
“A disturbing death at his family’s sugar plantation catapults Titch on a remarkable journey across the sky with young George Washington Black at his side,” reads his full character description (via Deadline). “He finds himself thrust into the position of mentor and father figure to Wash — a role he is ill-prepared for because Titch is chasing the shadow of his own father, an inevitable reckoning that threatens to doom him and Wash both.”
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Washington Black is an epic nine-episode series which will be led by Ernest Kingsley Jr. (The Sandman) as George Washington “Wash” Black, an 11-year-old boy on a Barbados sugar plantation who must flee after a shocking death threatens to upend his life.
“Set in the 19th century, the series is the tale of a singular young man: pirate ship-stowaway-turned-initiate; rugged explorer of uncharted territory; survivor of the tundra, the desert and the high seas; an engineer; an inventor; an artist,” reads the synopsis. “He traverses the globe — from searing Barbados heat to Arctic ice — and finds an unexpected and fraught love along the way. Though he meets many an enigmatic figure in his travels, Wash quickly finds that he alone is the engine of his hero’s journey — a triumphant voyage of daring dreams, steampunk and the magic of the human heart.”
Meanwhile, Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) is set to portray the gregarious, larger-than-life Medwin Harris, who traveled the world after a traumatic childhood as a Black refugee in Nova Scotia as the de facto Mayor of Black Halifax prioritizes the community over everything except Washington Black, his young protégé. Meeting Wash sends him down a challenging path of self-discovery, and as the barricades around his heart start to fall, Medwin will learn to dream again.
Additional cast include Iola Evans as Tanna Goff, Edward Bluemel as Billy McGee, Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Miss Angie, newcomer Eddie Karanja as young Wash.
Washington Black is written and executive produced by Selwyn Seyfu, who is also set as showrunner. Executive producers are Brown for Indian Meadows Productions, The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, Lindsay Williams, and DJ Goldberg, Anthony Hemingway, and Jennifer Johnson, with Edugyan producing. It is a production by 20th Television.
