Starz Orders Blindspotting Series With Jasmine Cephas Jones Returning

October 4, 2019

After garnering widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike and bringing home a modest box office haul, Starz has begun development on a series adaptation of last year’s crime dramedy Blindspotting, with star Jasmine Cephas Jones also set to reprise her role from the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Starring and co-written by Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, the film was set in a rapidly gentrifying Oakland, California and followed Collin (Diggs), on his last three days of probation and looking for a chance at a new start, but his fast-talking childhood best friend Miles (Casal) is a magnet for trouble. After witnessing a white police officer shooting an unarmed black civilian, Collin is left haunted and his friendship with Miles begins taking a downward spiral as things begin to escalate between the two.

Diggs and Casal, who are longtime friends and collaborators in real life, co-wrote the project in the mid-2000s, but due to frequent scheduling conflicts and a search for funding, the project was delayed for years before finally hitting theaters last year. The film opened to rave reviews from critics, currently maintaining a 94% approval rating from critics on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes based on 160 reviews, who praised it for its fresh and timely take on the buddy comedy genre and for its powerful social commentary and Diggs’ performance.

The series will act as a sequel story to the film, picking up with Cephas Jones’ Ashley, longtime partner and mother to Miles’ son, as she moves in with his mother and half-sister after he is sent to prison and struggles to find her footing in a city that she no longer recognizes and is going through an identity crisis.

The half-hour comedy pilot will be written and executive produced by Diggs and Casal, with the film’s producers Jess Wu Calder and Keith Calder also executive producing through their banner Snoot Entertainment.