Hulu Goes Straight to Series with Washington Black

Hulu has given a straight-to-series order for the adventure series Washington Black, with Sterling K. Brown starring and serving as executive producer.

Produced by 20th Television, Washington Black is based on Esi Edugyan’s best-selling novel of the same name. It follows the 19th-century adventures of George Washington Black, an 11-year-old boy on a Barbados sugar plantation who ends up traveling the world after fleeing.

Brown plays Medwin Haris, a man 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 his young protégé, Washington Black.

Selwyn Seyfu Hinds (Twilight Zone, Strange Adventures) is adapting the book for the screen and will executive produce with The Gotham Group and Brown’s Indian Meadows Productions. Also executive producing are The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, Lindsay Williams and DJ Goldberg, alongside Anthony Hemingway and Jennifer Johnson.

Jordan Helman, head of scripted content at Hulu, said: “What Selwyn, Sterling and their inspired team of collaborators have crafted is a deeply romantic, globe-trotting adventure that is highly entertaining and unlike anything else on television. It is a remarkable tale of hope, wonder and perseverance, and we are honored to have the opportunity to work with such incredible storytellers to bring this series to the screen.”

Brown said: “Washington Black inspires me! This young man and the adventure he undertakes remind me of how the power of imagination and the creativity of artistry can transform the world in which we live. Selwyn Seyfu Hinds has taken the transcendent words of Esi Edugyan and created a spectacular universe that brings to fruition the power of possibility.”

Hinds added: “The world has felt like we’re living in darkest night, stumbling to find and hold onto a North Star to make a way forward. Like many of us, I’ve felt lost far too often. But writing Washington Black these past two years has guided me back home. This story of a young Black boy who becomes a globe-trotting artist, scientist and inventor. This tale of the true human superpowers: hope, love, empathy, persistence. Those ideas have been my North Star. The promise that we will get through the long night and take flight like Wash under the light of the sun. This show has been a conduit to that faith for those of us who’ve been creating it, and we’re beyond thrilled to be about the business of sharing it with all of you.”

Karey Burke, president of 20th Television, commented: “Bringing Esi Edugyan’s prize-winning book to television has been a passion project for Selwyn and Sterling, and we are grateful to Hulu for their belief in this wildly ambitious and aspirational project. Our relationship with the amazing Sterling K. Brown dates all the way back to The People V. OJ and, of course, This Is Us, so we couldn’t be happier to be continuing our collaboration with him as both a producer and a performer on this beautiful series.”