Barry Jenkins lands Thuso Mbedu, Joel Edgerton, Aaron Pierre for ‘Underground Railroad’
After a long search, Academy Award winner Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) has found the lead for his 11-episode limited series The Underground Railroad, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead.
27-year old South African actress Thuso Mbedu will play the 15-year old fearless and rebellious slave Cora in the antebellum era South. While an unknown in the US, she is the star of one of South Africa’s most popular television series, the soap opera Generations: The Legacy, and also scored two International Emmy Award nominations for the teen drama series Is’thunzi, also in South Africa.
Aaron Pierre is probably best known for David S. Goyer’s SyFy series Krypton, which just wrapped on its second season. He was also in Jez Butterworth’s Amazon series Brittania and in the ITV limited series Prime Suspect 1973. He will be playing Caesar, who helps Cora escape.
Actor/writer/director Joel Edgerton (Boy Erased, Loving, The Gift) will also be heading to the series as a slavecatcher named Ridgeway who hunts for Cora. This was first reported by Variety.
Child star Chase W. Dillon has been cast as Homer, a young black boy who is part of Ridgeway’s gang. He can be seen in the upcoming BET series First Wives Club from Tracy Oliver. He also has been cast in the in the upcoming Little America at Apple.
The Underground Railroad is currently in pre-production, with location scouting taking place in Georgia. Principal photography is set to begin early this summer and expected to arrive in 2020. Jenkins will direct all 11 episodes and will executive produce with his PASTEL production company alongside Brad Pitt and Plan B, who also co-produced both Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- 2026 Tribeca Festival Celebrates 25th Anniversary with World Premieres of ‘Hadestown: The Musical,’ ‘Earth, Wind & Fire’ Doc - April 16, 2026
- ‘Beef’ Season 2 Review: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton Sink Their Teeth Into Lee Sung Jin’s Meaty Morality Tale [A-] - April 16, 2026
- George Clooney to be Honored at 51st Chaplin Award Gala by Stephen Colbert, Sam Rockwell and More - April 15, 2026
2026 Tonys: Laurie Metcalf (‘Little Bear Ridge Road,’ ‘Death of a Salesman’) May Join Elite Group of Double-Nominated Performers 
2026 Tribeca Festival Celebrates 25th Anniversary with World Premieres of ‘Hadestown: The Musical,’ ‘Earth, Wind & Fire’ Doc 
Director Watch Podcast Ep. 149 – ‘Killer of Sheep’ (Charles Burnett, 1978) 
‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Review: Careful the Spell You Cast, Children Will Listen (and Sometimes Kill) [C]