When They See Us: Ava DuVernay shares teaser, premiere date of upcoming Netflix series on Central Park Five case

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay has announced that her Netflix limited series on the Central Park Five case has been titled When They See Us. The four-part show is based on the case of five teenagers of colour who were wrongly convicted for the rape of a jogger in 1989. When they are exonerated after 25 years, they sued the city for their time in prison. The series was previously titled The Central Park Five and DuVernay said the new title “embraces the humanity of the men and not their politicized moniker”, according to The Hollywood Reporter. [caption id=“attachment_4584141” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] File Image of Ava DuVernay. Image from AP[/caption] The series will debut on Netflix on 31 May. The filmmaker also shared a teaser of the series on Twitter. In the video, a teenager is shown leaving his house before being arrested and he later finds himself in a prison holding cell alongside several other young men.

The series will feature Michael K Williams, Vera Farmiga, John Leguizamo, Felicity Huffman, Niecy Nash, Blair Underwood and Christopher Jackson, among others. This is DuVernay’s second project at Netflix after 2016’s Oscar-nominated documentary feature 13th.