John Boyega and Letitia Wright to star in Steve McQueen's upcoming BBC anthology series Small Axe

John Boyega, Letitia Wright, Steve McQueen making BBC anthology show

Steve McQueen is taking John Boyega and Letitia Wright with him to the small screen.

The Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave director is creating an anthology series called Small Axe that will tell five different stories about London’s West Indian community that span the late 1960s to the early 1980s.

Disney film favorites Boyega and Wright will be joined by actors Malachi Kirby (Black Mirror), Jack Lowden (Dunkirk), Shaun Parkes (Lost in Space), Rochenda Sandall (Line of Duty), and Alex Jennings (The Crown).

The title comes from a Jamaican proverb that says “If you are the big tree, we are the small axe.” It also happens to be the title of one of Bob Marley’s songs on the album Catch a Fire.

Executive producer McQueen conceived the project with Alastair Siddons (Tomb Raider) and newcomer Courttia Newland. Additionally, novelist Alex Wheatle will be a writing consultant on the show.

Production for Small Axe has already begun in London with plans for the six-part series to air on BBC, and be distributed to the United States through Amazon Prime Video.

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