National Geographic announced a 2024 premiere date for Genius: MLK/X, the latest installment in Nat Geo’s Genius franchise. Genius: MLK/X will premiere the first two episodes Feb. 1 on National Geographic and stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, with two new episodes debuting weekly on all platforms. The news was announced during Nat Geo’s content showcase Wednesday night in NYC.
In a first for the Emmy-winning anthology series, the eight-part series will focus on two iconic geniuses — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X — and how their dueling philosophies helped usher America through the Civil Rights Movement.
Genius: MLK/X follows both King and X from their formative years, where they were molded by strong fathers and traumatic injustices, to their rich, parallel stories as they shaped their identities and became the change they wished to see in the world. Influenced as children by different upbringings and experiences: King by the Jim Crow-era South and life in the church before finding his voice at Morehouse and Boston University, and X growing up under the constant, deadly violence of the Klan and falling into a life of vice and incarceration where he was introduced to the Nation of Islam and found his voice. The two visionaries ultimately rose to pioneer a movement.
The ensemble cast includes Kelvin Harrison Jr. (The Trial of the Chicago 7) as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Aaron Pierre (The Underground Railroad) as Malcolm X, Weruche Opia (I May Destroy You) as Coretta Scott King, and Jayme Lawson (The Batman) as Betty Shabazz. The series also marks one of the last roles for Emmy-winning actor Ron Cephas Jones (This is Us).
This season is again produced by 20th Television with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Television, as well as the company’s president of Television, Kristen Zolner, along with Reggie Rock Bythewood and Gina Pirnce-Bythewood via their production company Undisputed Cinema. Raphael Jackson Jr. and Damione Macedon (Power, Mosquito Coast) are showrunners and executive producers.
Watch a first-look clip Genius: MLK/X – The Making Of below.
