According to Deadline, Hulu is developing a documentary series based on The New York Times’ The 1619 Project, which was organized by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hanna-Jones as a way to reframe American history without glossing over the systems that allowed slavery to thrive and how those systems remain in effect now. Hannah-Jones is on board with Hulu’s adaptation, as are Lionsgate, Oprah Winfrey, and Winfrey’s Harpo Films, with Deadline saying that it will be “an ongoing series that connects the centrality of slavery in history with an unflinching account of brutal racism that endures in so many aspects of American life today,” while showing how America’s history with slavery “shaped nearly all aspects of society.”
Award-winning producer Shoshana Guy will serve as showrunner, and Oscar-winner Roger Ross Williams (director of Music By Prudence) will direct the first episode and “oversee” the series. In a statement, Hannah-Jones said, “I could not ask for a more gifted and committed storyteller to entrust The 1619 Project to than Roger Ross Williams,” adding, “I have long admired the impact and authenticity of his filmmaking, and the fact that we’re working with Disney and Hulu aligns with our vision of partnering with the world’s greatest Black storytellers to bring this project to a global audience.”
The Deadline story doesn’t have any details about when this might air.