Prime Video Hit Essence With A Genre-Bending Showcase, A Celebration Of Black Men And More

Prime Video made a huge splash at the 2024 Essence Fest with a showcase of their content with Black leads and more.

Talent from several series hit the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center for programming on Saturday featuring current series The Boys, new film Tyler Perry’s Divorce and the Black, and new/returning series Cross and The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.

Cory Hardrict and Meagan Good from Tyler Perry’s Divorce in the Black took part in a moderate discussion with Janeé Bolden of Bossip.

Meanwhile outgoing Executive Head of Global Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility for Amazon Studios, Latasha Gillespie, moderated a “Genre-Bending Black Stories” panel featuring Jessie T. Usher and Susan Heyward of The Boys and Sophia Nomvete and Cynthia Addai-Robinson of The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.

When speaking about the impact of their casting in this universe, Nomvete told the panel’s crowd, “It’s been life-changing. The wonderful thing about [J.R.R.] Tolkien is that [one of his] purpose[s] was to invite speculation and conversation. He created Middle Earth, which is made up of different races. At this point, it was time to see that live and in color. And in all of the places where he has offered is stepping stones, there were gaps between those stepping stones. And were are the mere hosts in order to fill that time.”

“We’re a global cast, for a global show,” Addai-Robinson added. “And the reach that these type of series have now, you sort of owe it to the world to represent the world. You have the realization that people may not even watch your show in English. They may watch it in the dub of the language where they’re from. We travel the world with the show and it really speaks to the impact of the story that is timeless and classic. They applied then for Tolkien and they certainly apply in the world we live in now.”

On the main stage later in the day, Bevy Smith had a conversation with Aldis Hodge, star of Cross, who exclusively revealed the November premiere date for Cross, as well as its brand-new key art.

Additionally, the night prior, an exclusive, invite-only Prime Video dinner called “The ESSENCE Of Black Men,” hosted by Tank and famed New Orleans entrepreneur and restaurateur Larry Morrow. Bryan-Michael Cox was the DJ.

Prime Video talent including Usher, Hodge, Heyward, Addai-Robinson, Nomvete and Hardrict attended, as well as Prime Video talent like Them: The Scare star Luke James and more.