Ava DuVernay’s star-studded Netflix limited series When They See Us follows Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise, the black and hispanic men who were falsely accused of beating and raping a white female jogger in Central Park in 1989, given the name the “Central Park Five†by the media, and eventually exonerated by DNA evidence in 2002.
The series was originally called The Central Park Five, but the new title, according to DuVernay, reflects the series’s intent to tell the men’s stories in full, “embracing the humanity of the men and not their politicized moniker.†Beginning in the spring of 1989, the four-part series will span 25 years through their eventual settlement with the city of New York in 2014.
DuVernay created When They See Us and also co-wrote and directed all four parts, which will premiere on Netflix on May 31, with Attica Locke, Robin Swicord, and Michael Starrbury serving as writers for the limited series. The all-star cast includes Michael K. Williams, Vera Farmiga, John Leguizamo, Felicity Huffman, Niecy Nash, Blair Underwood, Christopher Jackson, Joshua Jackson, Omar J. Dorsey, Adepero Oduye, Famke Janssen, Aurora Perrineau, William Sadler, Jharrel Jerome, Jovan Adepo, Aunjanue Ellis, Kylie Bunbury, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Storm Reid, Chris Chalk, Freddy Miyares, Justin Cunningham, Ethan Herisse, Caleel Harris, Marquis Rodriguez, and Asante Blackk.