Tom Ellis has secured his next big role, and it’s a far cry from Lucifer. The actor has been cast in the new Hulu original series Washington Black according to a report by Deadline. He will play the character Christopher “Titch” Wilde, who some fans already know from the original Washington Black novel by Esi Edugyan.
Ellis is the latest to join the cast of Washington Black along with Sterling K. Brown and Ernest Kingsley, Jr. The novel is about a boy named George Washington “Wash” Black, who is born into slavery in Barbados and goes on to secure his freedom and travel the world. The story begins when Wash is 11 and he begins to develop an uneasy friendship with Titch, one of the two brothers who own the plantation where he is enslaved. Titch is the kinder of the two, and he teaches Wash how to read.
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Titch is a complicated character whose flaws come to light later in the book, but it’s not clear how the TV adaptation will handle the large time jumps in the story. Washington Black depicts all of Wash’s life, so multiple actors would need to be cast in the main role to show him aging. So far, only one actor has been named for the role – Ernest Kingsley Jr.
Meanwhile, Brown will play a character named Medwin Harris, a gregarious man who is the de facto leader of the former slave community in Nova Scotia. The show might need to make some changes from the book if Brown and Ellis are ever to be on screen together, but they will both share scenes with Iola Evans as Tanna Goff, Wash’s eventual love interest.
Washington Black was published in 2018, and Hulu announced that it was ordering the TV adaptation straight to series back in October. It will be a limited series not extending past the story laid out in the book, and it will be written by Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, who previously worked on The Twilight Zone. Hinds and Brown are both executive producers, while Edugyan is a co-producer.
There’s no word yet on when Washington Black will begin filming or when the show might eventually air. The novel was lauded for exploring broad themes and difficult historical subjects through a focused lens on just one main character. It is available now in print, digital and audiobook formats.
