A young man comes of age in a tumultuous time of oppression in this sumptuous looking historical miniseries.
How to watch Washington Black in New Zealand
Washington Black is streaming in New Zealand exclusively on Disney+ from July 23, 2025, with all eight episodes dropping at once.
What is Washington Black about?
Based on the acclaimed 2018 novel by Canadian author Esi Edugyan, Washington Black sets its scene in Barbados and Nova Scotia in the early 1800s, where an 11-year-old boy (Kingsley) is forced to flee his home on a sugar plantation in Barbados after a shocking death. He comes under the wing of Medwin Harris (Brown), who himself had a traumatic childhood as a Black refugee in Nova Scotia. From there we get what seems to be a sprawling Victorian bildungsroman, albeit from a point of view rarely explored in the usual literature of the period.
The cast of Washington Black
Ernest Kingsley Jr. is George Washington Black, with Eddie Karanja as young Washington Black; Tom Ellis is Christopher ‘Titch’ Wilde; Sterling K. Brown is Medwin Harris; Iola Evans is Tanna Goff; Julian Rhind-Tutt is Erasmus Wilde; Billy Boyd is Willard; Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine is Gaius; Edward Bluemel is Billy McGee; Sharon Duncan-Brewster is Miss Angie; Rupert Graves is Mr. Goff; Shaunette Renée Wilson is Big Kit; Charles Dance is James Wilde; and Blaine Dorey is Porter.
Washington Black trailer
Why we’re excited about Washington Black
It’s a big, sprawling historical epic from the point of view of an enslaved person that takes in both the sweep of the 19th century and the horrors of colonialism. What’s not to like? The book had awards thrown at it, including being shortlisted for the 2018 Booker Prize. If the series if even half as good, the result should be pretty damn decent.
