Walking Dead Universe stars Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead) and Corey Hawkins (The Walking Dead) are among the newly revealed cast of the upcoming musical film adaptation of Broadway’s The Color Purple. As announced during ABC’s Soul of a Nation: Screen Queens Rising special, Danielle Brooks (Peacemaker, Orange is the New Black) and Fantasia Taylor (American Idol) will reprise their lead roles from the stage production as Sofia and Celie, respectively. Based on director Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film adapted from the Alice Walker novel, the Tony Award-winning Broadway show is headed to the big screen in 2023 with Blitz Bazawule (Black Is King) directing.
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Brooks and Taylor lead a cast that includes Halle Bailey (Grown-ish, Disney’s upcoming live-action The Little Mermaid) as Nettie, Taraji P. Henson (Empire, Hidden Figures) as Shug, and Oscar-winning singer H.E.R. (Original Song, Judas and the Black Messiah) in her acting debut as Squeak. Domingo will play Albert, a.k.a. “Mister,” portrayed by Danny Glover in the 1985 film that starred Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey; Hawkins has been cast as Harpo, played by Willard E. Pugh in Spielberg’s The Color Purple.
In an Instagram post reacting to the cast announcement, Domingo paid tribute to Glover with thanks to Walker and The Color Purple producers Spielberg, Winfrey, Quincy Jones, and Scott Sanders.
“I am ready for this journey to undo me. Make me learn about love again. Make me learn about hope. Make me learn about forgiveness. Make me learn about how our people have triumphed over unspeakable horrors,” Domingo wrote. “Mister is the trauma and the hurt. He is the broken clock waiting to be turned. I look forward to loving this cast and crew of The Color Purple Musical Film.”
Domingo added, “I join a long legacy of men who have given complexity to ‘Mister.’ Starting with the incomparable legend known as Danny Glover. A great inspiration for me. Love. Time to get to work.”
A veteran of the stage and the screen, known for Passing Strange and his Tony-nominated role in Broadway’s The Scottsboro Boys, Domingo has played cunning conman zombie apocalypse survivor Victor Strand across all seven seasons of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead. Along with his starring role on the Walking Dead spinoff, Domingo is known for his role as Ali opposite Zendaya in Euphoria, Cutler in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and recent roles in If Beale Street Could Talk, Candyman, and the Spielberg-directed Lincoln.
Hawkins played Heath across six episodes of The Walking Dead between 2015 and 2016. Along with his starring role as Dr. Dre in the 2015 film Straight Outta Compton, Hawkins has appeared in the films Kong: Skull Island, BlacKkKlansman, In the Heights, and The Tragedy of Macbeth; he previously led the short-lived 24 spinoff series 24: Legacy.
Warner Bros. Pictures has scheduled The Color Purple musical film to release in theaters on December 20, 2023.
