A new trailer is out for the upcoming Ava DuVernay Netflix series When They See Us, which will tell the story of the Central Park Five.
The series will focus on the five, who were just teenagers in 1989 when they were wrongly convicted of raping a jogger in Central Park, and will follow them from their arrest until 2014 when their convictions were overturned.
The trailer focuses on the youth of the boys at the center of the story, opening with a close up of sports trophies and a boy putting on a JV letter jacket. It then segues into police shining a light in his face and shouting “Do not resist” and transitions into a shot of all five boys in a stark white interrogation room. In a voiceover, we hear what sounds like the voice of Felicity Huffman (who stars in the series) commanding: “Let’s get an army of blue up in Harlem. You go into those projects and you stop every little thug you see.”
The Central Park Five will be played by Jovan Adepo, Jharrel Jerome, Chris Chalk, Justin Cunningham, and Freddy Miyares. The rest of the incredibly talented cast includes Michael K. Williams, Vera Farmiga, John Leguizamo, Niecy Nash, Kylie Bunbury, Adepero Oduye, Storm Reid, Blair Underwood, and Famke Janssen.
According to Gothamist, in a previous statement about the series, DuVernay said, “In their journey, we witness five innocent young men of color who were met with injustice at every turn—from coerced confessions to unjust incarceration to public calls for their execution by the man who would go on to be the President of the United States.”
She’s referring to the fact that Donald Trump took out a full-page ad in 1989 calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty for the five minors. He still maintains that they are guilty despite DNA evidence to the contrary.
The four-part miniseries will air on Netflix May 31.