A+E Networks announces new casting for its four-night, eight-hour scripted event miniseries “Roots,” a historical portrait of American slavery recounting the journey of one family’s will to survive, endure and ultimately carry on their legacy despite enormous hardship and inhumanity. On board for the reboot is none other than Academy Award winner® Forest Whitaker (Lee Daniels’ The Butler) as “Fiddler,” a slave who tries to mentor Kunta Kinte and risks his life to help him escape, and Academy Award winner Anna Paquin (“True Blood”) as “Nancy Holt,” the wife of a Confederate officer who has her own agenda when it comes to the handling of slaves, to name a few.
Multi-award winner Mario Van Peebles (Posse, New Jack City) and two-time Oscar® nominee Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) are set to direct nights two and four, respectively. They join previously announced multi-award winner Phillip Noyce (Salt) and Emmy Award winner Thomas Carter (The Ben Carson Story), who are directing nights one and three, respectively. Grammy Award® winner Questlove is also on-board as the executive music Ppoducer for the production.
After a global search to find the perfect actors to play the iconic roles of “Kunta Kinte” and “Chicken George” that spanned 15 locations (Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Congo, South Africa, Kenya, Los Angeles, London, Toronto, Vancouver, Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, New York, Paris and Ireland), newcomers Malachi Kirby and Regé-Jean Page (Survivor, Waterloo) stood out from the crowd.
Both Malachi as Kunta Kinte and Regé-Jean as Chicken George showed an emotional depth and understanding of the characters that is critical to the project. Malachi was handpicked by executive producers Will Packer and LeVar Burton, who played the original Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka warrior who is educated, proud, strong and resilient – all traits that empower him when he is captured by slavers, while Chicken George, Kizzy’s son, is a handsome social magnet who knows how to transfix a crowd with a story, yet doesn’t appreciate what he has until his luck abandons him.
Rounding out the cast is a Golden Globe winner, an Emmy nominated actor, Tony Award winner and a “Black-ish” star. With production already underway in New Orleans and set to begin later this month in South Africa, let’s take a look at full details surrounding the cast of “Roots” below.
