Daveed Diggs to Play Frederick Douglass in Ethan Hawke’s Showtime Limited Series ‘The Good Lord Bird’

Daveed Diggs and Wyatt Russell have joined “The Good Lord Bird,” Ethan Hawke’s Showtime drama, the premium cable channel revealed during the Television Critics Association press tour Friday. Diggs will play Frederick Douglass, the historical figure, orator and leader of the abolitionist movement. “Lodge 49” star Russell will star in several episodes as U.S. Army Officer Jeb Stuart. Hawke executive produces and stars as John Brown. The eight-part limited event series comes from Blumhouse Television and is based on the novel of the same name by James McBride. It is set to premiere in February. According to Showtime, “The Good Lord Bird” is told from the point of view of Onion (Joshua Johnson-Lionel), a fictional enslaved boy, who is part of Brown’s motley crew of abolitionist soldiers during the time of Bleeding Kansas, eventually participating in the famous 1859 raid on the Army depot at Harpers Ferry. Brown’s raid failed to initiate the slave revolt he intended, but was the instigating event that started the Civil War. Also Read: 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' TV Adaptation Set at CBS All Access From Alex Kurtzman Mark Richard serves as showrunner, and executive produces alongside Hawke, with whom he wrote the...