Source: Gilbert Carrasquillo / Getty
Peacock is giving out an early Christmas gift. The Best Man: The Final Chapters is heading to the streamer on Dec. 22 just before the holiday. A teaser trailer dropped late over the weekend to preview the show.
The 8-episode series began with two popular movies, 1999’s The Best Man and 2013’s The Best Man Holiday, helmed by director Malcolm D. Lee. The movies starred Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Sanaa Lathan, Terence Howard, Morris Chestnut, Monica Calhoun, Melissa de Souza, and Harold Perrineau, becoming one of the most beloved of the black rom-coms.
In the first movie, Diggs plays Harper, a writer who draws animosity from his college buddies after publishing his first novel Unfinished Business, a thinly disguised version of their lives. This time, tensions arise when the book is picked up for a film adaptation, and the now midlife friends wonder what that means for them.
All of the original cast returns except for…well, if you haven’t seen the two previous films, we won’t spoil it for you.
The teaser trailer premiered at Urbanworld Film Festival, the same place The Best Man made its debut. Lee, who is the director Spike Lee’s cousin, created the franchise series and executive produces the show with Dayna Lynne North.
“When I wrote The Best Man, it was out of a desire to see myself on screen. Growing up I rarely saw Black people — Black men in particular – the way my friends and I saw ourselves: educated, upwardly mobile African-Americans who were just “normal” (Barack and Michelle before Barack and Michelle),” Lee said in a statement released to media along with the trailer.
Source: CBS Photo Archive / Getty
Recurring guest stars in the limited series include Nicole Ari Parker (And Just Like That) Ron Canada (The Shield) Brandon Victor Dixon (Power), Tobias Truvillion (Queens). Lee directs four episodes of the limited series while Robert Townsend, Charles Stone III, and Stacy Muhammad handle directing duties for the rest.
“Fans of the franchise have consistently asked me (and the stellar cast) when are we going to tell them what’s happened with this group of friends? And what better way to do that than to give them what they want (and more) in a limited series,” Lee’s statement continued.
Given the moment that we are in, this is the perfect time to revisit Harper, Lance, Murch, Quentin, Jordan, Robyn, Candace, and Shelby and go on the wild, emotional, hilarious ride with them, as they deal with their own journeys through parenting, activism, old love, new love and the complexities of being Black in 21st Century America.”
Watch the trailer below:
Tagged: Arts & Entertainment, entertainment blog, Malcolm D. Lee, music blog, NEWS, Newsletter, Peacock, Streaming, Television, The Best Man