The trailer for A League of Their Own series adaption puts Black women at the centre of the story
A League of Their Own series has released its first trailer and premiere date details. (YouTube/Amazon Prime Video)
The first trailer for A League of Their Own has arrived – and it puts the spotlight on Black, female baseball players.
The Rockford Peaches are back, 30 years on since Penny Marshall’s 1992 film, which chronicled the World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
The upcoming series has been confirmed to premiere on 12 August on Amazon Prime Video.
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It stars Abbi Jacobson and Chanté Adams as Carson and Max, who, alongside their teammates develop deeper understandings of sexuality and race through the lens of baseball, team building, and rule-breaking.
Adams will play the series’ Black lead in the adaption of a film that, at the time of filming, wouldn’t cast non-white women as team members.
“28 years ago, Penny Marshall told us a story about women playing professional baseball that up until then had been largely overlooked,” Jacobson shared in a statement. “We grew up obsessed with the film, like everyone else. Three years ago, we approached Sony with the idea of telling a new, still overlooked set of those stories.”
She adds: “We feel beyond lucky and excited to get to bring these characters to life. It took grit, fire, authenticity, wild imagination, and a crackling sense of humor for these players to achieve their dreams. We’re hoping to bring audiences a story with all of those qualities.”
The series will also star D’Arcy Carden and Gbemisola Ikumelo, with appearances from Roberta Colindrez, Nick Offerman, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Kate Berlant, and more.
It’s based on the 1992 film of the same name, which was directed by Penny Marshall and stars the likes of Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Madonna.
The film’s co-screenwriter, Lowell Ganz discussed the lack of representation for its 30th anniversary celebrations, telling Rolling Stone: “We were very aware that we were an all-white movie.”
“It would have been dishonest to integrate the League and act like that happened since that didn’t happen,” he added.
However he and fellow writer, Baboloo Mandel tried to work around the issue by casting a Black woman – recently discovered to be DeLisa Chinn-Tyler after the actress was cut from the film’s end credits – in a 15-second, spotlight-stealing ball-throwing scene.
Back in 2020, Gabrielle Union was among those calling for a Black female-focused sequel to baseball movie A League Of Their Own.
Can we make this please? Asking for a bunch of us https://t.co/4mLggJuixe
— Gabrielle Union (@itsgabrielleu) June 29, 2020
Filmmaker Matthew A. Cherry posted the scene from the film and said that the sequel could start from that scene and “you stay with her and it becomes a biopic on the 3 black women” including Toni Stone, Mami “Peanut” Johnson and Connie Morgan.
Union was among those who retweeted the clip, adding the caption: “Can we make this please? Asking for a bunch of us.”
You can find out how to stream the upcoming series adaption below.
How to stream A League of Their Own series
The first three episodes of A League of Their Own will be released at the same time on 12 August.
The following hour-long episodes are then expected to drop every Friday on the streaming platform.
They’ll be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, which you can sign up to with a free 30-day trial.
After your free trial ends you can continue the subscription for £7.99/$8.99 or cancel it. To find out more and to sign up head to Amazon.
