EXCLUSIVE: Above is the first sneak peek of John Boyega in Steve McQueen’s hotly-anticipated series Small Axe, which will drop on the BBC and Amazon later this year.
McQueen’s anthology drama, which has been in the works since 2014, tells five stories from within London’s West Indian community between the 1960s and 1980s.
Boyega’s episode is titled Red, White And Blue, and will feature the Star Wars actor as Leroy Logan, a real-life Metropolitan Police officer who wanted to change the force from within after he saw his father assaulted by two policemen.
Logan was awarded an MBE by the Queen in 2001 for his role in developing anti-racist policies for the police. He retired as a superintendent in 2013 after 30 years of service.
Boyega stars alongside Steve Toussaint (Prince of Persia) in Red, White And Blue, while they will be joined by newcomers Tyrone Huntley, Nathan Vidal and Jaden Oshenye. The episode was co-written by Courttia Newland and McQueen.
The other four Small Axe films are titled: Mangrove, Lovers Rock, Alex Wheatle and Education. Mangrove and Lovers Rock were selected as part of the Cannes Film Festival lineup in June, with McQueen dedicating the films to George Floyd and “all the other black people that have been murdered, seen or unseen, because of who they are.”
The anthology series is a Turbine Studios and Lammas Park production for BBC One, which developed and commissioned the series, with Amazon Studios co-producing in the U.S. It is executive produced by Tracey Scoffield and David Tanner for Turbine Studios and Steve McQueen for Lammas Park. Mike Elliot is producing for EMU Films with Turbine Studios and Anita Overland.