Fans are in awe over the stunning first trailer for the new “The Color Purple” movie. The new clip has sparked celebration over its display of Black sisterhood on the big screen.
The trailer for the movie musical dropped on Tuesday. It was an instant hit across social media. Viewers took to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and the trailer’s YouTube comment sections. Many shared their excitement about the December 25 release of the remake.
The Blitz Bazawule-directed musical adaptation is a reboot of the 1985 Stephen Spielberg-directed drama.
The new trailer offers the first look at performances from the film’s main cast. The stars include Fantasia Barrino as Celie, Halle Bailey as a young Nettie and Taraji P. Henson as Shug Avery. H.E.R will appear as Mary “Squeak” Agnes, Colman Domingo as Albert “Mister” Johnson, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi as a young Celie, and Corey Hawkins as Harpo. Danielle Brooks of “Orange Is the New Black” fame will play the role of Sophia. Oprah Winfrey, was cast as Sophia in the 1985 version of the film.
Both the remake and 1985 original are based on the iconic 1983 Pulitzer prize-winning Alice Walker book of the same name. The book follows the story of 14-year-old Celie. In the story she navigates decades of harrowing struggles and triumphs as a Black woman in rural Georgia.
The book and its adaptions — which includes the two films and two separate Broadway musicals — has long been a celebrated example of the power of Black sisterhood.
The Black women characters rally around each other in times of need and joy. Many took to social media to praise how “The Color Purple” has been used over the decades to highlight the centuries of systemic struggles Black women have endured and overcome. All made possible with the help of their resilient community of Black women.
It is important to note that trauma endured by the Black women characters in “The Color Purple” has long come under scrutiny as well. And these critiques were also raised in the latest conversations around the film.
In an exclusive interview with 21Ninety, friendship coach Danielle Bayard Jackson stressed that Black women’s friendships are key part of Black women being able to feel seen and empowered in world that regularly devalues their identity.
“There’s all this research that says your friendships are at the center of your identity work,” Bayard Jackson said. “Your friendships are a huge influence on how you see yourself, so we need other Black women friends to see ourselves. There’s an ease [of life] when you don’t have to speak with pretense and caveats and justify yourself.”
The beauty of Black sisterhood was on full display in a sweet video shared to Winfrey’s TikTok page. In it the mogul is watching the film’s trailer for the first time with Barrino, Henson, H.E.R., and Brooks. The women beamed with joy, laughed, shared glances at each other, and ultimately became emotional as they watched the trailer together.
Comments on the video were full of Black women sharing their own joy at witnessing the display of friendship and love among the cast. The response exemplifies the impact Celie’s timeless story continues to have decades after it first hit shelves.