HBO Confirms November Release Date for Channel 4's 'Get Millie Black'

In the waning days of AT&T’s ownership of Warner Media, as behind the scenes, the company was prepping to merge with Discovery Communications, HBO went into “greenlight everything” mode. Those who were intimately familiar with Discovery’s head, David Zaslav, already knew what the rest of us had learned: This was a man who would cancel anything and everything that smacked of “woke,” and the chances of getting the sort of groundbreaking fare HBO was known for was going to become more challenging. Among the slew of series that landed deals, Get Millie Black, an adaption of Marion James’ series of novels, looked like it would never survive the transition.

However, perhaps due to partner Channel 4 not letting HBO out of it, HBO president Casey Bloys keeping himself between the project and Zas, or casting an attractive white man who happened to be a Game of Thrones alum (or maybe a combination of the above), but the series managed to make it to air, despite delays pushing it from 2022 to 2023 and now 2024. Starring Tamara Lawrance (Time) as the titular detective, ex-Scotland Yard Detective Millie-Jean Black, who recently transferred to Jamaica to help Kingston law enforcement solve a missing persons case.

Born in the U.K., Lawrance is the daughter of two Jamaican immigrants, and the series was a bit of a homecoming for her, calling it “the most difficult job I’ve done” but “an amazing experience. I was able to meet this place that I had romanticized so much in my head and always loved to go to. And I wanted to understand more about myself – and where I came from. I was so enamored by Jamaica and the people and learned a lot…it deepens my desire to connect more with my ancestry.” She also praised the series as full of “new people and new energy, and I think it shows Jamaica probably in ways that it hasn’t been seen on international television before.”

Here’s the synopsis:

Get Millie Black explores the troubled legacy of racism, slavery, sexuality, classism and cycles of trauma in the post-colonial landscape of Britain and Jamaica, told through the unique perspective of Millie – a girl born on the Rock and raised in London who claims to be both British and Jamaican, yet somehow belongs to neither place.

The series follows ex-Scotland Yard detective Millie-Jean Black, who returns to Kingston, Jamaica, to work missing persons cases, soon finding herself on a quest to save a sibling who won’t be saved, to find a child who can’t be found, and to solve a case that will blow her world apart and prove almost as tough to crack as herself. 

Lawrance co-stars alongside Joe Dempsie (Sherwood) as British detective Luke Holborn, who shows up on the trail of a major investigation that puts him on a collision course with Millie; Gershwyn Eustache Jr. (Joan) as Curtis, a closeted LGBTQ+ officer who partners Millie but is about to have his whole life shattered, and small-screen newcomer Chyna McQueen, Hibiscus, Millie’s sister and one of the Sunlight Ladies, a band of queer outcasts living hand-to-mouth yet exuberantly.

Author Marlon James adapted his own novel for television, penning episodes with Joshua St. Johnston, Theresa Ikoko, and Lydia Adetunji; it is James’ first television series. Director Tanya Hamilton (Berlin Station) split helming duties with Annetta Laufer. James and St. Johnson executive produce alongside Leopoldo Gout and Simon Maxwell for Motive Pictures.

Get Millie Black will debut at 9 p.m. ET on Monday, November 24, 2025, on HBO and Max and will air/stream weekly through the end of the year.