Netflix Unveils Trailer for Chadwick Boseman’s Last Film ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’

Netflix has unveiled the first trailer for the upcoming “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” starring Viola Davis, and Chadwick Boseman in the leading roles. The movie will premiere on December 18 on Netflix.

The acclaimed August Wilson play “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is set in the late 1920s around the pioneering “queen of the blues” (played by Davis) and her band members.

Boseman, who died of colon cancer in August, plays Levee, a talented but troubled trumpet player who has an eye for Rainey’s girlfriend and is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry. Davis, who had played Boseman’s mother in “Get on Up,” said, “Chadwick was just an artist. That’s just who he was.”

Below is the official synopsis:

Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians awaits trailblazing performer, the legendary “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey (Academy Award® winner Viola Davis). Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio’s claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious trumpeter Levee (Chadwick Boseman) — who has an eye for Ma’s girlfriend and is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry — spurs his fellow musicians into an eruption of stories revealing truths that will forever change the course of their lives.

Adapted from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson’s play, MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM celebrates the transformative power of the blues and the artists who refuse to let society’s prejudices dictate their worth. Directed by George C. Wolfe and adapted for the screen by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, the film is produced by Fences Oscar® nominees Denzel Washington and Todd Black. Colman Domingo, Glynn Turman, Michael Potts, Taylour Paige, and Dusan Brown co-star alongside Grammy® winner Branford Marsalis’ score.