Ava DuVernay Debuts New Naomi Trailer Ahead of Series Premiere

This week will see the premiere of Naomi, the latest series within The CW’s ever-evolving universe of DC shows. The series has an impressive array of talent in front of and behind the camera, including co-creator and executive producer Ava DuVernay. DuVernay, whose work includes A Wrinkle in Time, When They See Us, and 13, has been vocal in her excitement about bringing the story of Naomi McDuffie (Kaci Walfall) to the small screen — and she continued that hype on social media on Monday, sharing a new trailer for the series ahead of its Tuesday premiere.

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Naomi follows a teenage girl’s journey from her small northwestern town to the heights of the multiverse. When a supernatural event shakes her hometown to the core, Naomi sets out to uncover its origins, and what she discovers will challenge everything we believe about our heroes.

“We’ve got a lot of information in the first two episodes, which means we get to make up new, cool things. That’s exactly what’s happening,” DuVernay revealed during a recent press event for the series. “This thing is off and running.”

In addition to Walfall, the series will star Camila Moreno, Alexander Wraith (Orange Is the New Black, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD), Cranston Johnson (Filthy Rich), Barry Watson (7th Heaven, Hart of Dixie), Mary-Charles Jones (Kevin Can Wait, Grey’s Anatomy), Aidan Gemme (Tomorrowland, Dora the Explorer), Mouzam Makkar (The Fix, Champions), Will Meyers (Gotham, Blue Bloods), and Daniel Puig (The System).

“[Naomi comic creators Brian Michael Bendis and David Walker] have been the epitome of the antithesis of toxic masculinity,” DuVernay explained. “They have said, ‘This is our baby, and you take her, and you raise her in the way that you want.’ They have been lovely in being very hands-off… That was something that they gave us as a gift as artists and creators to say, ‘Look, we’re not going to micromanage this process. We love Naomi, we would love to see how she is in the hands of two women. You all take it and do your thing.’”

“Both of them have been amazingly supportive of us going off and independently taking Naomi where she’ll go in the series, which will be a different path than where she’ll go in the next season of the comics,” DuVernay continued. “I think Naomi is a muscular enough character, and she deserves and can hold multiple iterations of artists interpreting her, just like Spider-Man, just like Batman. Naomi should be able to have those multiple interpretations as well.”

DC’s Naomi is set to debut on Tuesday, January 11th at 9/8c on The CW.