'American Society of Magical Negroes' cast and director say not to judge the film by its trailer

In Kobi Libi's debut film starring David Alan Grier, Justice Smith and Nicole Byer, a young Black man is recruited into a secret society, satirizing a movie trope about weak Black characters that only exist to support white people.

A social media backlash was not the response that writer and director Kobi Libii and his cast expected when the trailer to his debut feature, “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” dropped back in December. Perhaps false assumptions best sum up some of the response, as in the case of one viewer who said they expected a Black “Harry Potter” adaptation and felt blindsided.

Libii’s film is instead a satire examining the “magical negro” trope, a term Spike Lee is credited with coining decades ago to call out Hollywood’s tendency to spotlight Black characters in supporting roles that cater to white main characters.

Smith and Grier star alongside Aisha Hinds as Gabbard in “The American Society of Magical Negroes.”Tobin Yelland / Focus FeaturesUntil recently, Black satirical films were a relative rarity on Hollywood’s biggest screen. With writer and director Cord Jefferson grabbing an Oscar win for best screenplay adaptation for “American Fiction,” that may change. In that regard, “The American Society of Magical Negroes” should be right on time.

Actor Justice Smith (“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” “Jurassic World Dominion”) stars as Aren, a young visual artist who shrinks in the presence of white people and is recruited into the American Society of Magical Negroes by Roger, played by David Alan Grier, to hone his ability to make white people comfortable in order to keep Black people from being harmed.

“The happier they are, the safer we are,” Roger reasons to Aren.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/american-society-magical-negroes-cast-director-rcna142823

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