‘Colin in Black and White’ Official Trailer and New Limited Series Poster

The official trailer for Netflix’s Colin in Black and White limited series opens with Colin Kaepernick declaring he’s always wanted to be a quarterback. “But what you start out as is not necessarily what you become,” says the activist and former NFL QB.

Kaepernick and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay met in 2017 and decided to team up on Colin in Black and White. “In high school, I faced a lot of different challenges from sports, to my family, and other parts of my personal life, which a lot of viewers may be able to relate to. But I also faced obstacles as a Black kid growing up in a white family in a white community,” stated Kaepernick. “After meeting Ava DuVernay in 2017, I knew she was the right person to collaborate with. I shared my idea to create a series based on my high school years and she said, ‘Ok, Let’s do it.’ And we started working together to bring these stories to life in the most impactful and compelling way possible.”

“It was vitally important to me that this wasn’t another autobiographical series about a famous person as a child. No disrespect to those shows, but it’s been done – and done well. I was interested in pushing a bit further into this storytelling trope,” stated DuVernay explaining their approach to the limited series. “It was about challenging the process to determine how we could expand the core of a young person’s path to power into a story that can appeal widely and personally to others. The goal was to take the kernel of the idea and make it mean something to viewers whether they’re watching in Detroit or Dubai, Shreveport or Senegal. This is how the idea of weaving cultural and historical context with the young person’s story came to my mind.”

The series stars Jaden Michael as a young Colin, Nick Offerman as Rick Kaepernick, and Mary-Louise Parker as Teresa Kaepernick. Colin Kaepernick appears as himself and narrates.

DuVernay, Kaepernick, and Michael Starrbury executive produced, with DuVernay, Sheldon Candis, Robert Townsend, Angel Kristi Williams, and Kenny Leon directing.

The six episode series will premiere on October 29, 2021.

Colin in Black and White Poster

The Plot, Courtesy of Neflix:

From co-creators Ava DuVernay and Colin Kaepernick comes Colin in Black and White, a bold new dramatic limited series that chronicles Kaepernick’s coming of age story, tackling the obstacles of race, class and culture as the Black adopted child of a white family.

Colin in Black and White stars Jaden Michael as Young Colin before reaching the highest levels of American football as an NFL quarterback and becoming a cultural icon and activist; Nick Offerman and Mary-Louise Parker as his well-meaning parents Rick and Teresa; and Colin Kaepernick himself, who appears as the present-day narrator of his own story, guiding viewers through a robust and colorfully presented array of historical and contemporary contextual moments. You don’t know Kaepernick until you know Colin.