Ray Fisher joins Women of the Movement, the limited series for ABC from creator-writer Marissa Jo Cerar and a producing team that includes Jay-Z, Will Smith and Aaron Kaplan.
He joins the already cast Glynn Turman, Adrienne Warren, Cedric Joe, and Niecy Nash as Alma, Emmett Till’s grandmother.
The limited series will center on Mamie Till-Mobley and her fight to get justice for son Emmett Till. Till was a 14-year old who was lynched in the Jim Crow South in 1955. Following the brutal murder of her son in the Jim Crow South, Mamie (Warren), a soft-spoken young mother in Chicago, put her own life on the line to seek justice in his name. Unwilling to let Emmett’s murder disappear from the headlines, Mamie chose to bear her pain on the world’s stage. Her doing that ignited the civil rights movement as we know it today.
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Fisher will play Gene Mobley, the man who would have been Emmett Till’s stepfather, if not for his murder. A devoted partner to Emmett’s mother, Mamie, Gene was considered the love of her life. They later married.
“It is an honor to be joining Women of the Movement’s powerful portrayal of Mamie Till-Mobley’s journey,” Fisher said. “To be in service of her story with so many talented women of color at the helm is truly a privilege. Mrs. Till-Mobley’s actions inspired the fight for fundamental change in our country, and her legacy will continue to serve as a much-needed reminder that a single person can indeed change the world.”
Glynn Turman plays Mose Wright, Emmett Till’s great uncle. He was a sharecropper, minister, and proud family man. Moses’ testimony during Emmett’s murder trial was among the bravest moments of the Civil Rights Movement. It was one of the first times, if not the first, a Black man stood in open court in the South and accused a white man of a crime.
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Women of the Movement is based on the book “Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement” by Devery S. Anderson.
Marissa Jo Cerar will write the series and serve as showrunner. Jay-Z, Will Smith and Aaron Kaplan are producing the series. Gina Prince-Bythewood is set to direct the first episode of the limited series, which is assembling a team of directors who are all women of color.
The six-episode series will premiere in 2021.
Fisher is best known for his role as ‘Victor Stone/Cyborg’ in Warner Brothers’ DC Cinematic Universe. ‘Cyborg’ is first introduced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and was last seen in Justice League. Fisher this past summer spoke up about alleged misconduct on the set of Justice League by replacement director Joss Whedon and others. It led to an Warner Bros. investigation, which resulted in “remedial action.”
In TV, Fisher co-starred in the third installment of HBO’s anthology series True Detective opposite Mahershala Ali. On stage, Fisher is known for his portrayal of Muhammed Ali in the Off-Broadway production, Fetch Clay, Make Man from Tony-winning director, Des McAnuff. Fisher is repped by Paradigm and Management 360.