UPDATE (9/13): Netflix has released the first trailer for its upcoming limited series based on the life of football player and activist, Colin Kaepernick. The clip for Colin Black & White features contemporary narration from Kaepernick, mixed with scenes from the show, in which Jaden Michael portrays the future quarterback as a teenager.
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Netflix has announced that Colin Black & White, the limited series about the life of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, will premiere on the streaming service on October 29th.
The six-episode series, created and produced by Ava DuVernay and Kaepernick, is a coming of age story about Kaepernick’s pre-NFL youth, “tackling the obstacles of race, class and culture as the Black adopted child of a white family.” Those experiences helped shape Kaepernick into the civil rights activist who protested police brutality both on and off the football field.
Jaden Michael as young Colin Kaepernick
SER BAFFO/NETFLIX
Jaden Michael plays the teenaged Kaepernick in the limited series, while Nick Offerman and Mary-Louise Parker portray his adopted parents. Kaepernick himself appears in Colin Black & White as the present-day narrator guiding viewers through his own life story. “You don’t know Kaepernick until you know Colin,” Netflix added.
“I’m excited to share this first peek into a project I co-created with the incomparable Ava DuVernay over the past couple of years,” Kaepernick said in a statement. “I look forward to the world meeting the incredible Jaden Michael, a young actor who plays me during my high school years, just a kid growing up in Turlock, California, who wanted to play ball.”
“With his act of protest, Colin Kaepernick ignited a national conversation about race and justice with far-reaching consequences for football, culture, and for him, personally,” DuVernay previously said in a statement. “Colin’s story has much to say about identity, sports, and the enduring spirit of protest and resilience. I couldn’t be happier than to tell this story with the team at Netflix.”
“Too often we see race and black stories portrayed through a white lens,” Kaepernick added when the series was announced in June 2020. “We seek to give new perspective to the differing realities that black people face. We explore the racial conflicts I faced as an adopted black man in a white community, during my high school years. It’s an honor to bring these stories to life in collaboration with Ava for the world to see.”
