Netflix has announced a release date for its six-episode scripted series about Colin Kaepernick’s high school years. Colin in Black and White will premiere on Oct. 29.
The series will follow Kaepernick’s upbringing with a white adopted family in central California, the events in his life that inspired his civil rights activism, and his efforts to develop as a quarterback who eventually played in the NFL. Each episode will be narrated by Kaepernick himself, while Jaden Michael (The Get Down) portrays him on screen.
Kaepernick played six seasons in the NFL, quarterbacking the San Francisco 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII. But his legacy will be kneeling during the National Anthem before each game during the 2016 season to protest police violence, racial injustice, and systematic oppression. That made him a polarizing figure in sports and culture, and cost him the rest of his NFL career. Kaepernick hasn’t played another NFL game since 2016.
No trailer for Colin in Black and White is available yet (which is often how Netflix announces release dates), but the streaming network released some images of the series, which you can see below (via TheWrap).
Actors Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) and Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds) were cast as Kaepernick’s parents, Rick and Teresa, last November.
Kaepernick grew up in Turlock, California, where he played football, basketball, and baseball at John H. Pitman High School. He played college football at Nevada, turning down scholarship offers from several other schools to play baseball. (He was still drafted in 2009 by the Chicago Cubs in the 43rd round.)
In four years at Nevada, Kaepernick passed for 10,098 yards and 82 touchdowns, while also rushing for 4,112 yards and 59 scores. He’s the only quarterback in FBS history to pass for 10,000 yards with over 4,000 rushing yards. A second-round pick by the San Francisco 49ers in 2011, Kaepernick passed for xxx yards and xx touchdowns in six seasons. He quarterbacked the 49ers to Super Bowl xxx, where they lost to the Baltimore Ravens.
Kaepernick, filmmaker Ava DuVernay (Selma, A Wrinkle in Time), and Michael Starrbury (When They See Us) are executive producers on Colin in Black in White. Starrbury wrote the entire series, while episodes were directed by DuVernay, along with Angel Kristi Williams (Really Love), Kenny Leon (American Son), Sheldon Candis (LUV), and Robert Townsend (Hollywood Shuffle).
“Too often we see race and Black stories portrayed through a white lens,” Kaepernick told the Los Angeles Times. when the series was announced in June 2020. “We seek to give new perspective to the differing realities that Black people face. We explore the racial conflicts I faced as an adopted Black man in a white community, during my high school years. It’s an honor to bring these stories to life in collaboration with Ava for the world to see.”
Again, Colin in Black and White will premiere on Netflix Oct. 29.
[TheWrap]
