The official trailer for Warner Bros. Just Mercy, which stars Michael B. Jordan and is based on a true story, has arrived. Just Mercy is the latest from director Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12) with Oscar winners Brie Larson and Jamie Foxx joining Jordan to tell the riveting legal drama of a lawyer’s fight to free a wrongly-convicted man from death row.
“The first time I visited death row, I wasn’t expecting to meet somebody the same age as me,” Jordan, as Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, shares in voiceover. From there, the trailer explores the fight Bryan and his client, Walter McMillian (Foxx), have ahead of them as Bryan tries to get Walter off death row. Walter isn’t entirely sold on Bryan, pushing back against him during one of their meetings and telling him, “You don’t know what you’re into down here in Alabama, where you’re guilty from the moment you’re born.” This is going to be a tough, tough journey for both men and it’s perfectly summed up by Walter in this moment.
The trailer also introduces Larson’s character, Eva Ansley. Eva is a local advocate who comes aboard Bryan’s team after he sets up shop in Alabama, assisting him with his caseload. Soon, as we see in the trailer, Bryan and Eva’s work grows as they speak with other death row inmates. It becomes clear that Bryan’s fight isn’t just about freeing Walter, but about fighting to stop systemic injustices and prejudices which cause men of color like Walter to end up wrongly-convicted in the first place.
Cretton co-wrote the script with Andrew Lanham, which is based on the real-life Stevenson’s memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. In addition to Jordan, Foxx, and Larson, Just Mercy also stars Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, O’Shea Jackson Jr., and Rob Morgan.
Just Mercy will be shown at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival (check out our most anticipated TIFF movies here). It arrives in theaters on January 10, 2020.
