Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

Director: Shaka King

Plot

The story of Fred Hampton, Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, and his fateful betrayal by FBI informant William O'Neal.

Male Deaths

• Daniel Kaluuya (Fred Hampton)
• Lakeith Stanfield (William "Bill" O'Neil)
• Algee Smith (Jake Winters)
• Ashton Sanders (Jimmy Paltor)
• Jermaine Fowler (Mark Clark)

Female Deaths

• None

Gallery

Jermaine Fowler

Algee Smith

Ashton Sanders

Daniel Kaluuya

Trivia

1. LaKeith Stanfield stated in an interview that he needed therapy after his portrayal of William O'Neal.
2. Dominique Fishback is also a poet and playwright. She penned the poem her character shared with Hampton.
3. With this film, Daniel Kaluuya becomes the first black British actor to receive multiple Academy Award nominations and, as of 2021, the only one to win the Oscar in an acting category.
4. Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, and Lil Rel Howery previously worked together in Get Out (2017).
5. First film with more than two African-American producers to be nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Picture. It is also the first Best Picture nominee to have all black producers, at 3; Shaka King, Charles D. King and Ryan Coogler.
6. Director Shaka King has described the initial idea for the film as "The Departed (2006) inside the world of COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program)." He thought it was a clever way to "sort of Trojan-horse a Fred Hampton biopic and introduce the world, you know, a great segment of the world who is unaware of who he was, and is highly unaware of the Panthers' politics and ideology."