The 'Champion' Trailer Brings Black British Music to Netflix

Netflix used the long Juneteenth weekend to debut its yearly marketing extravaganza, the ridiculously-named Tudum, and drop release dates and photos (and a trailer or two) from its upcoming series. However, one upcoming series got left off the menu, the brand new co-production Champion, which Netflix is doing alongside the BBC. The series, which is a love letter to modern Black music culture in the U.K., may not be one that's aimed at American audiences, which is far more used to its rap laced with R&B or southern twang than the accented motormouth of grime. However, the BBC was undeterred and released the extended trailer for viewers to check out.

The series hails from Queenie author Candice Carty-Williams, and part of the BBC's plethora of diverse voice projects that have been coming to fruition since mid-2022. Those projects include Dolly Alderson's adaptation of Everything I Know About Love to Skint Estate author Cash Carraway's original series Rain Dogs, starring Daisy May Cooper. Carty-Williams's series is an original story not based on her prior best-sellers, and Netflix boarded as a co-producer in June 2022. Filming started a month later in Birmingham in July 2022 and wrapped in the fall.

The series' trailer not only introduces viewers to the Champion family at the heart of the series but is a showcase for the original music viewers can expect from the show.

Here's the series synopsis:

Rap sensation Bosco Champion is home from prison and ready to dominate the music industry once more. But when his dutiful younger sister Vita’s own talent is discovered by Bosco’s rival, she steps out of her brother's shadow to become a performer in her own right, setting the Champion siblings against one another and tearing apart the whole family in the process.

Champion is headlined by TV newcomer Déja J Bowens as Vita, Malcolm Kamulete (Top Boy) as Bosco, and Ray BLK as Vita’s best friend, Honey. Nadine Marshall (Sherwood) and Ray Fearon (His Dark Materials) co-star as Bosco and Vita’s parents, Aria and Beres, with Jo Martin (Doctor Who) as Bosco’s manager, Dawn. Co-stars include Kerim Hassan (Once Upon a Time in London), Adeyinka Akinrinade (Everything I Know About Love), Tom Forbes (Wolf Hall), Genesis Lynea (Shadow and Bone), Karl Collins (Attack The Block), Francis Lovehall (Small Axe), Corey Weekes (Coronation Street) and Rachel Adedeji (Dreaming Whilst Black). 

Carty-Williams wrote all eight scripts with Ameir Brown, Isis Davis, Emma Dennis-Edwards, and Edem Wornoo. Directors John Ogunmuyiwa, Adeyemi Michael, Christiana Ebohon-Green, and Caleb Femi split helming duties. The series features a full original music soundtrack, with Ray BLK serving as the series’ Music Executive alongside grime pioneer Ghetts. The series is produced by Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor and Candice Carty-Williams, with Bryan Elsley, Dave Evans, and Danielle Scott-Haughton for Balloon Entertainment, Charlie Pattinson, Willow Grylls, and Imogen O’Sullivan for New Pictures, Jo McClellan for the BBC, and Alice Pearse and Tom Lyons for Netflix.

Champion does not yet have a release date; however, the BBC is hyping the series as coming soon and is expected to follow on Netflix sometime before the end of 2023.