On Sunday, the final day of New York Comic Con, FX announced the premiere date for its upcoming series adapting Octavia E. Butler’s beloved sci-fi novel Kindred. All eight episodes of the series will debut on Hulu on Tuesday, December 13th. Soon after, it will be available internationally on Star+ and on Disney+ under the Star subgrouping in international territories. The announcement came during the Kindred panel. The presentation included showrunner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and members of Kindred‘s cast, including Mallori Johnson, Micah Stock, Gayle Rankin, Austin Smith, David Alexander Kaplan, Sophina Brown, and Sheria Irving.
Kindred follows Dana James (Mallori Johnson), “a young Black woman and aspiring writer. who has uprooted her life of familial obligation and relocated to Los Angeles, ready to claim a future that, for once, feels all her own.” However, as the story begins, Dana finds herself caught in a violent push and pull backward and forward in time. Emerging in on a nineteenth-century plantation that is linked to her family. As Dana travels through her past and present, an interracial romance emerges and she’s forced to deal with familial secrets newly discovered.
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Mallori Johnson leads the cast as “Dana James.” Kindred also stars Micah Stock as “Kevin Franklin,” Ryan Kwanten as “Thomas Weylin,” Gayle Rankin as “Margaret Weylin,” Austin Smith as “Luke,” David Alexander Kaplan as “Rufus Weylin,” Sophina Brown as “Sarah” and Sheria Irving as “Olivia.”
Kindred is based on Octavia E. Butler’s critically-acclaimed 1979 novel. Writer/showrunner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins adapted the story for television and executive produced the series with Joe Weisberg, Joel Fields, Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel of Protozoa Pictures, Courtney Lee-Mitchell, Jules Jackson, and Ernestine Walker. Janicza Bravo directed the pilot and serves as an executive producer. FX Productions produced the series.
“I first read Kindred 20 years ago,” Bravo said in 2021, after receiving the pilot order. “I was in college. I hadn’t ever seen myself in a world like that. And certainly not at its center. What might seem like only a portrait of an invisible woman is also a potent embrace of our relationship to history and how it can bring us closer to our future. After what felt like losing over a year of the life I had come to know so well, an opportunity to direct an adaptation of this specific text was a win. On top of that getting to partner with Branden is something I’d been wanting for quite some time.”
“Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has done a phenomenal job of adapting Kindred for FX and honoring the legacy and timeless value of Octavia Butler’s groundbreaking novel,” Nick Grad, president of original programming at FX, said when FX ordered Kindred to series in January. “The pilot directed by Janicza Bravo is brilliant and we can’t wait to resume production with this incredibly talented and dedicated cast.”
