Trailer of Chadwick Boseman’s Final Film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Released, Watch Here

Netflix on Monday previewed George C. Wolfe’s August Wilson adaptation Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, showcasing Chadwick Boseman’s final performance opposite Viola Davis’ powerhouse blues singer. The film, shot last year, was already one of the year’s most anticipated, coming as the next chapter in Denzel Washington’s ongoing project to turn Wilson’s plays into films, following 2016’s Oscar-winning Fences. But since the unexpected death in August of 43-year-old Boseman from colon cancer, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” has taken on a elegiac aura. Boseman’s performance has been said to be among the finest of his career, and the scenes previewed Monday only reinforced that notion.

Set in Chicago 1927, Davis stars as Ma Rainey, a fiery singer known as the Mother of the Blues.” Boseman plays Levee, an ambitious trumpeter aiming to launch himself with his own updated versions of Ma Rainey’s songs.