Tom Ellis Joins Sterling K. Brown in Hulu’s ‘Washington Black’

Lucifer star, Tom Ellis making the jump from Netflix to Hulu. According to Deadline, has signed on to star opposite Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) in Hulu’s Washington Black, based on Esi Edugyan’s novel, which has  Twilight Zone writer Selwyn Seyfu Hinds for 20th Century Television.

Washington Black tells the story of George Washington Black, an 11-year-old field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation who must flee in the company of his master’s eccentric inventor brother, Christopher Wilde after a shocking death threatens to upend both of their lives. The duo then embark on a globe-trotting adventure with the help of a strange flying machine. Their journey takes them through America, the cold Arctic seas, the gothic spires of old Europe, and the deserts of North Africa, all while staying one step ahead of a deadly bounty hunter.

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Ellis will play Christopher “Titch” Wilde, an eccentric, passionate steampunk inventor whose youthful enthusiasm masks an inner vulnerability. A disturbing death at his family’s sugar plantation catapults Titch on a remarkable journey across the sky with young George Washington Black at his side. Titch finds himself thrust into the position of mentor and father figure to Wash — a role he is ill-prepared for because Titch is chasing the shadow of his own father, an inevitable reckoning that threatens to doom him and Wash both.

Rounding out the cast is Ernest Kingsley Jr., who stars in the title role, along with Iola Evans, Edward Bluemel, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, and Brown, who also serves as executive producer.

Washington Black is executive produced by Hinds, Brown under his Indian Meadows Productions banner, The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, Lindsay Williams, and DJ Goldberg, Anthony Hemingway, and Jennifer Johnson. Esi Edugyan is co-producer. Hulu has not announced a premiere date.