The official trailer for Will Smith’s next project, Emancipation, has finally dropped. The three-minute-long sizzler was released on Wednesday (Nov. 16) and sees Smith portray an escaped slave best known as “Whipped Peter.”
Smith shared the trailer on social media. In the caption, he wrote, “Inspired by a true story, one man fights through unthinkable terrors in an attempt to reunite with his family.”
The film is slated to begin streaming on Apple TV+ on Dec. 9. In previous interviews, the Academy Award winner said he strayed from making slave movies because he did not want to show Black people in that light.
“I wanted to be a superhero. I wanted to depict Black excellence alongside my white counterparts. I wanted to play roles that you would give to Tom Cruise,” he explained to GQ last September.
He added that he only considered the possibility of portraying a slave after watching Django, a film he also admitted he turned down. But unlike Django, the box office juggernaut said Emancipation is not about vengeance. Instead, it is a film about “love and the power of Black love, and that was something that I could rock with… how Black love makes us invincible,” he said.
In the trailer, Smith fights underwater gators, evades slave capturers, and poses for the infamous 1800s photo that depicts Peter’s scarred back where he’d been repeatedly beaten.
Director Antoine Fuqua recently sat down with Vanity Fair, where he discussed the decision to depict the brutality Peter faced despite society’s growing pushback against Black trauma being recreated for television and film.
“The only thing I can do is try to tell stories that I think could be inspiring in some way but remind us of our history,” said Fuqua in the article published Tuesday (Nov. 15). He further explained, “Because there is a responsibility: We are citizens of the United States of America and that’s the same country that kidnapped us, and forced labor, and brutalized us with violence for greed.”
The King Richard actor has shared the upcoming film with two separate audiences. The first took place in early October during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 51st Annual Legislative Conference. The second private screening was held on Oct. 25. The star-studded guest list included Tyler Perry, Rihanna, Dave Chappelle, Fawn, Kenya Barris, ASAP Rocky, and others.
See the Emancipation trailer below.