CW 4400 cast talk about making the series through a Black lens

The CW 4400 posted a video on Twitter where the cast discuss re-envisioning the cult classic through a modern, Black lens and the importance of telling these stories.

Executive Producer Arian Jackson explains how the show came to her because the network wanted to reboot the 4400 and were looking to tell the story from a black perspective.

Derrick A King who plays Rev Johnson said he felt it was important for the story to be told from a black perspective because it’s not a narrative that we see often on TV. He mentions the backlash that they have received just from the trailers that were released. People highlight the race of the cast. The original 4400 cast was a reverse of what we have now.

“Oh, this show isn’t diverse. Well, the last wasn’t diverse either.” He mentions that the show will be diverse as they will be continuously introducing characters.

Joseph David-Jones who plays Jharrel notes how we get to see through all the different time periods how much things have changed and also how things haven’t changed. Now it seems a lot more relevant and a lot more timely to have this story in this way.

Ireon Roach who plays corrections officer Keisha said it was important to tell this story from a black perspective because so many people of colour, especially black people have gone missing. It’s something that is always happening, black people are vanishing, everywhere, all the time. “So, I think it’s really powerful that they vanish in their time and that it’s sort of over and they get to reappear and have like, a power and a mission, a place.

This is me paraphrasing watch the video and hear from the cast themselves.

I liked the point Jaye Ladymore (Claudette) made that the more you get to see people with who you don’t regularly interact, the more you understand their humanity. I wish the people who have dismissed this series because the cast is mainly black would take a look at themselves and ask why they are so upset about this. Black people are humans too and for me personally, it makes a refreshing change to have a sci-fi story told through a black lens.