Lucifer star Tom Ellis has found his next TV role.
Ellis has joined the cast of Hulu’s limited series Washington Black, based on Esi Edugyan’s best-selling novel. The show’s ensemble also includes Ernest Kingsley Jr. as the title character, Eddie Karanja, Iola Evans, Edward Bluemel, Sharon Duncan-Brewster and Sterling K. Brown, who’s also an executive producer.
Washington Black follows an 11-year-old boy on a 19th century Barbados sugar plantation. He flees after a shocking death threatens to upend his life and comes under the wing of Medwin Harris (Brown), who traveled the world after a traumatic childhood as a Black refugee in Nova Scotia. Now, as the de facto Mayor of Black Halifax, Medwin prioritizes the community over everything except his young protégé.
Ellis will play Christopher “Titch” Wilde, an eccentric, passionate steampunk inventor. A disturbing death at his family’s sugar plantation catapults Titch on a remarkable journey across the sky with our young George Washington Black at his side. Titch finds himself thrust into the position of mentor and father figure to Wash — a role he is ill-prepared to take on.
Ellis wrapped his six-season run as the title character on Lucifer last year. His credits also include Netflix’s film Isn’t It Romantic, the BBC’s Miranda and USA Network’s Rush.
Disney’s 20th Television is producing Washington Black, which Hulu ordered to series in October. Selwyn Seyfu Hinds (The Twilight Zone) serves as showrunner and executive produces with Brown, via his Indian Meadows Productions; writer Jennifer Johnson; The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, Lindsay Williams and DJ Goldberg; Anthony Hemingway; and directors Wanuri Kahiu and Mo Marable. Edugyan is a co-producer.
