Parkwood Entertainment and Disney+ have released the new trailer and poster for Black Is King, a film by 24-time Grammy Award-winner Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, which premieres on 31 July 2020 on Disney+ in countries where it’s available. The new film will premiere two weeks after the one-year anniversary of the theatrical release of Disney’s The Lion King.
Simultaneously, a distribution deal was announced to make Black Is King available on much of the African continent, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Namibia, Cameroon, Liberia, Burundi, Senegal, Togo, Somalia, Benin, Congo, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Gabon, and Cape Verde through MultiChoice Group’s M-Net and Canal+ Afrique.
Black Is King was in production for a year and features an impressive list of diverse voices on its creative team, including directors Emmanuel Adjei, Blitz Bazawule, Pierre Debusschere, Jenn Nkiru, Ibra Ake, Dikayl Rimmasch, Jake Nava, and co-director and long-time collaborator of Beyoncé, Kwasi Fordjour.
Filmed in various locations, the film’s cinematography captures beautiful people and landscapes across continents, starting in New York, then Los Angeles, South Africa, West Africa, London and Belgium. From all those places came an extraordinary cast of actors and dancers that influenced the film’s rich tableau and vibrant choreography.
The new trailer provides a glimpse of some of the special guests in the film. They include models Aweng Ade-Chuol and Adut Akech, supermodel Naomi Campbell, Tina Knowles-Lawson, author and Academy Award-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o, singer Kelly Rowland, Pharrell Williams and Jay-Z, among others. Many artists featured on The Lion King: The Gift album also make appearances.
A celebratory memoir for the world on the black experience, Black Is King includes full-length videos for the songs Already, Brown Skin Girl, Mood 4 Eva, and My Power, which is heard in the new trailer.