Will Smith is set to return to the big screen earlier than expected with director Antoine Fuqua’s Emancipation.
Originally expected to debut in 2023, Apple TV+ has now released a trailer for the film, setting it for theaters on December 2 and streaming on December 9.
“Give thanks to God,” Peter tells his family. “The Lord is with us. What can a mere man do to me?”
That’s how the trailer opens up as Smith plays Peter, a man who escapes from slavery, evading cold-blooded hunters and the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana on his quest for freedom.
The movie is inspired by the 1863 photos of “Whipped Peter” taken during a Union Army medical examination. One image, known as “The Scourged Back,” which shows Peter’s bare back mutilated by a whipping delivered by his enslavers, ultimately contributed to growing public opposition to slavery.
Watch the trailer below
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Fuqua said referencing the Oscar slap,“Four hundred years of slavery is bigger than one moment. My hope is that people will see it that way and watch the movie and be swept away with the great performance by Will and all the real hard work that the whole crew did.”
“I wasn’t out looking for a slave movie; I never saw Emancipation as a slave movie,” Fuqua explained. “I wrote ‘sacred motivation’ on the top of my script because it was something more spiritual for me and for Will. It was a story about triumph.”
