History Channel ROOTS Trailer Drops + QuestLove To Executive Produce Music

The History Channel's quest to reboot the famed Alex Haley's masterpiece ROOTS is coming to major fruition with Anika Noni Rose, Derek Luke and the ever talented Forest Whitaker joining the cast.



Fishburne, who can be seen weekly as Anthony Anderson's father in the top rated ABC hit sitcom Blackish, is poised to play famed author Alex Haley in the upcoming production which is garnering good as well as skeptical buzz with some feeling as though there is no need for a remake.

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The casting is now complete with info out of Hollywood that Forest Whitaker, Anna Paquin, Derek Luke, Anika Noni Rose and more have joined the cast.

Peep the details:

A+E Networks announces new casting for its four-night, eight-hour scripted event miniseries “Roots,” from A+E Studios, including Academy Award winner® Forest Whitaker (Lee Daniels’ The Butler, South Paw) as “Fiddler,” a slave who tries to mentor Kunta Kinte and risks his life to help him escape; Academy Award winner Anna Paquin (True Blood) as “Nancy Holt,” the wife of a Confederate officer who has her own agenda when it comes to the handling of slaves; Golden Globe® Award winning and Emmy® Award nominated actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors) as “Tom Lea,” an uneducated slave owner desperate to claw his way into the elite company of Southern gentility; 

Tony Award® winner Anika Noni Rose (Dream Girls, The Good Wife, The Princess and the Frog) as “Kizzy,” the cherished, smart daughter of Kunta Kinte who maintains her family pride and warrior spirit; Chad L. Coleman (The Walking Dead, The Wire) as “Mingo,” a stern no-nonsense slave who keeps the Lea plantation afloat; Erica Tazel (Justified) as “Matilda,” a preacher’s daughter and love interest to “Chicken George”; and Derek Luke (Captain America: The First Avenger, Antwone Fisher) as “Silla Ba Dibba,” the military trainer of Juffure, charged with transforming teen boys into powerful Mandinka Warriors.






Joining Fishburn is Questlove, from the Grammy Award winning band The Roots, who has been set as the executive music producer. For ROOTS, he will create the authentic African sound and themes for the characters as well as produce the overall sound as the music progresses each night.

Photo Cred: Naoharu

Additionally Multi-award winning Phillip Noyce (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, Salt) and Emmy(R) Award winner Thomas Carter (Coach Carter, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story) are set to helm nights one and three respectively. Directors for nights two and four are forthcoming. 

ROOTS is a historical portrait of American slavery recounting the journey of one family's will to survive, endure and ultimately carry on their legacy despite enormous hardship and inhumanity. Spanning multiple generations, the lineage begins with young Kunta Kinte who is captured in his homeland in The Gambia and transported in brutal conditions to colonial America where he's sold into slavery. 


Check out a vintage interview with the late Mr. Haley: