Netflix’s Lucifer ended its phenomenally successful six-season run last fall, marking an end to the series that turned Tom Ellis into one of the most popular faces on TV. He’s not going to be off our screens for long, though, as the British actor has landed himself a role in Hulu’s upcoming historical drama series Washington Black, opposite This is Us star Sterling K. Brown.
As first reported by Deadline, Ellis will star as a series regular in the adaptation of the bestselling novel by Esi Edugyan, which previously received a straight-to-series order at the Disney-owned streaming service. The Twilight Zone alum Selwyn Seyfu Hinds is serving as showrunner for the limited series, which comes from 20th Television. Brown is also on board as a producer.
Washington Black is said to follow the “the extraordinary 19th-century adventures of George Washington “Wash” Black – an 11-year-old boy on a Barbados sugar plantation who must flee after a shocking death threatens to upend his life.” With newcomer Ernest Kingsley Jr. in the title role, Brown co-stars as the gregarious, larger-than-life Medwin Harris, who traveled the world after a traumatic childhood as a Black refugee in Nova Scotia and takes Wash under his wing.
Ellis, meanwhile, plays Christopher “Titch” Wilde, an eccentric, passionate steampunk inventor with a “youthful enthusiasm” but also an “inner vulnerability.” After a disturbing death at his family’s sugar plantation, Titch is catapulted on a remarkable journey across the sky with young Wash at his side, becoming the boy’s reluctant mentor and father figure. The rest of the cast includes Iola Evans, Edward Bluemel, and Sharon Duncan-Brewster.
It sounds like both this project and the character Ellis is portraying are suitably far-removed from the role of Lucifer Morningstar, the literal devil, in the Netflix supernatural crime series. The actor will be teaming up with Netflix again soon, though, for romcom Players, in which he’ll feature opposite Gina Rodriguez and Damon Wayans Jr. Filming was recently completed on that production.
