Donald Glover’s New Show ‘Atlanta’ Releases Trailer, Details, And Cast Interview
It’s been a long time since it was announced that Community star Donald Glover would be starring in a music-inspired comedy on FX. Almost three years later, Donald Glover has finally shared the first official trailer for his show Atlanta, as well as a brief interview with the cast.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Atlanta will be premiering on FX this coming summer. Donald Glover is the creator, writer, executive producer, and star of this half-hour comedy based around the world of rap music. Glover plays a musician named Earnest “Earn” Marks, who returns to his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Marks is simply trying to get by when he’s suddenly thrust back into the rap industry when his cousin hits it big as an artist.
FXM provided the first official look at Donald Glover’s new show and even exchanged a few words with the cast at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour. You can see the trailer in the video below.
Donald Glover joked that the show was born out of his desire to “make Twin Peaks with rappers.”
And while Isiah Whitlock Jr., who plays Donald Glover’s father in Atlanta, acknowledged that the show is made for rappers, it also contains a lot of truth about life in general.
“It’s about truth. It’s about life. Even though it is a show for rappers, there’s a lot of truth, a lot of life to it.”
The show especially rings true to Donald Glover, who created a mildly successful career as a rapper under the name Childish Gambino. Donald Glover initially found fame on the cult comedy show Community but left the cast after five years.
Donald Glover also attempted to launch a semi-autobiographical comedy show on NBC back in 2012, but it never got off the ground. Atlanta seems to contain some autobiographical elements as well, or at least bits about the entertainment industry that are familiar to Donald Glover.
“It’s a show I kinda always wanted to see on television,” Donald Glover explained. “So, I hope that other television shows do it too.”
According to Deadline, Donald Glover further explained that following his departure from Community, he’s acquired a fair bit of knowledge about the television industry. He claims this was the perfect time for him to launch a show like Atlanta.
“I know what I’m doing a little bit.There’s so many screens that have to be filled now, between your television, your computer and your phone, that I think it’s the perfect time to make something that I see, a perfect opportunity to combine everything that media is right now.”
XXL Mag describes Atlanta as a “rags to riches” story that follows the lives of two cousins who are trying to launch rap careers in one of the hip-hop capitals of the world: Atlanta, Georgia. Donald Glover shares that hometown with the character he plays and explained how the city has special significance to both him and black culture.
“I know it’s going to be very easy for people to say ‘it’s a black Mecca,’ and it is, but I just think that it’s the most American place,” Glover said. “Everybody there is like ‘Yo, I got a verse’. Everybody is trying to make something from nothing.”
Donald Glover will be joined in the cast by Zazie Beetz, Brian Tyree Henry, and Lakeith Lee Stanfield.
There’s no official release date for Atlanta yet, but FX has announced that 10 initial episodes will kick off the series sometime in summer of 2016.
Will you be tuning into Donald Glover’s new show?
[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]
