Corey Hawkins and Kelvin Harrison Jr. are in talks to join the cast of the upcoming feature adaptation of Death of a Salesman from Focus Features and Amblin Entertainment.
They would join previously announced leads Jeffrey Wright and Octavia Spencer. The film will be directed by Chinonye Chukwu, who is co-adapting the screenplay with Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner from Arthur Miller’s seminal 1949 play. Focus and Amblin declined to comment.
Character details have not been confirmed, though speculation points to the possibility that Hawkins and Harrison could portray Biff and Happy Loman, the sons of Willy and Linda Loman.
The two-act drama follows aging traveling salesman Willy Loman as he struggles to reconcile the dreams he chased with the reality of his life and the impact his choices have had on his family. Since premiering on Broadway in 1949, the play has become one of the most enduring examinations of ambition, denial, and the cost of pursuing the American Dream. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play.
The property has been revisited many times across stage and screen. Actors including Dustin Hoffman and Brian Dennehy have famously taken on the role of Willy Loman, while the 1951 film adaptation starring Fredric March earned five Academy Award nominations.
Producers on the new film include Cindy Tolan and Kristie Macosko Krieger for Amblin Entertainment, with Spencer producing through Orit Entertainment. Kushner also serves as a producer.
Hawkins remains in high demand. He is currently shooting Nightwatching opposite Mila Kunis and will soon appear in the Amazon MGM Studios thriller Crime 101 alongside Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Barry Keoghan. He is also part of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which features Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, and Lupita Nyong’o. Additionally, Hawkins stars opposite Willem Dafoe in Nadia Latif’s adaptation of Walter Mosley’s The Man in My Basement, which premiered at TIFF in 2025.
For Harrison, the potential casting would continue a notable professional throughline alongside Wright. He is currently making his stage debut in The Disappear at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre, further expanding a career that has balanced independent film, studio projects, and music-driven performances. Their paths intersect across the broader Hunger Games franchise history and the developing Jean-Michel Basquiat project Samo Lives!.
Chukwu’s direction, combined with Kushner’s involvement, signals an adaptation aiming to honor the emotional gravity of Miller’s work while reintroducing it to contemporary audiences.
If finalized, the additions of Hawkins and Harrison would round out a cast bringing together multiple generations of acclaimed performers for a new interpretation of a cornerstone of American drama.