Netflix shares first look at Chadwick Boseman’s final role

Netflix has shared the first look at Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the final film role of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman.

Boseman died in August at the age of 43 following a private four-year battle with colon cancer.

His death stunned Hollywood and led to an outpouring of grief and tributes from across the entertainment industry.

Boseman’s last big-screen appearance will show him starring alongside Oscar-winner Viola Davis.

It is based on August Wilson’s award-winning 1982 play of the same name and explores racial tensions in 1920s Chicago.

Viola plays influential blues artist Ma Rainey while Boseman appears as her ambitious trumpeter Levee.

George C Wolfe is directing the film. Netflix has shared the first stills from the movie, including Davis as Rainey and Boseman as Levee.

Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman star in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, a new film based on August Wilson’s award-winning play from director George C. Wolfe and producer Denzel Washington. @MaRaineyFilm premieres December 18. pic.twitter.com/ErhrQAW4nU

— Netflix (@netflix) September 30, 2020

Denzel Washington will serve as a producer on the film.

Washington – who paid for Boseman to study acting in the UK – paid a touching tribute to the star following his death, describing him as a “gentle soul and brilliant artist”.

Boseman revealed in 2018 that Washington paid the fees for an acting course in Oxford almost 20 years earlier.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom launches on Netflix on December 18.