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HARRIET – Official Trailer [HD] – In Theaters November 1st

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Cynthia Erivo steps into the role of Harriet Tubman in a trailer built on faith, danger and one impossible 100-mile walk to freedom.

Focus Features dropped the first official trailer for Harriet on July 23, 2019, and it wasted no time announcing what kind of film this is going to be. Directed by Kasi Lemmons, best known for Eve’s Bayou, the biographical drama traces Harriet Tubman’s escape from bondage in Maryland and her transformation into the Underground Railroad’s most fearless conductor. It’s set to open in theaters on November 1, 2019, after a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

• Cynthia Erivo — a Tony, Grammy and Daytime Emmy winner — plays Tubman, born Araminta “Minty” Ross, and also co-wrote and performed the film’s original song “Stand Up.”
• The trailer follows Tubman’s roughly 100-mile solo escape from Maryland to Pennsylvania, then her repeated returns south as a conductor leading dozens of enslaved people to freedom.
• The footage has already topped 7 million views on YouTube, building notable Oscar buzz for Erivo’s performance in the title role.

The Story the Trailer Tells

The trailer opens on Tubman praying for courage before she attempts her escape, declaring, “God don’t mean people to own people.” That line sets the tone for a film built around faith as much as physical survival — Lemmons and co-writer Gregory Allen Howard frame Tubman’s journey as a spiritual reckoning as much as a geographic one.

From there, the footage shifts into Tubman’s evolution from fugitive to conductor, guiding enslaved people north through the network of safe houses and hidden routes known as the Underground Railroad. She isn’t running alone anymore — she’s the one other people are trusting with their lives, and the trailer makes clear how many times she chose to go back into danger rather than stay free herself.

The Pursuit and the Stakes

Standing in her way is Bigger Long, a slave catcher played by Omar J. Dorsey, hunting Tubman on behalf of her former enslaver. The trailer’s most charged sequences are the armed standoffs this pursuit produces, culminating in Tubman’s own declaration of resolve.

“I will give every last drop of blood in my veins until this monster called slavery is dead.”

That line lands right before the trailer’s closing image — Tubman leading a group of escapees through a river toward safety, the exact kind of dramatic set piece Focus Features built this first look around.

The Cast Around Erivo

Leslie Odom Jr. plays William Still, the real-life Philadelphia abolitionist who documented the Underground Railroad’s operations. Janelle Monáe plays Marie Buchanon, a Philadelphia boarding house owner and anti-slavery activist, while Joe Alwyn plays Gideon Brodess, the man who claimed ownership over Tubman before her escape. Vanessa Bell Calloway, Clarke Peters and Zackary Momoh round out the supporting ensemble.

Behind the camera, Debra Martin Chase, Daniela Taplin Lundberg and Gregory Allen Howard produce, with Focus Features distributing domestically and Universal Pictures handling the film internationally. It’s the kind of awards-season release pattern studios use when they’re confident a lead performance can carry a marketing push — not unlike the way a first trailer can single-handedly shift how audiences talk about an unfamiliar title before anyone’s seen the full cut.

Erivo’s Path to the Role

Erivo arrives with the rare EGOT-track résumé — Tony, Grammy and Daytime Emmy wins already on her shelf — and Harriet marks her first true leading film role of this scale. Writing and performing “Stand Up” for the soundtrack gives her a second fingerprint on the project beyond the performance itself, something studios have leaned on before when a creative voice shapes both a film’s score and its lead role in tandem.

The trailer’s early reception — 7 million-plus views and immediate Oscar chatter for Erivo — suggests Focus Features has a genuine awards contender on its hands heading into a fall calendar that’s about to get crowded.

November 1 is the date to watch. That’s when audiences find out whether the full film matches the trailer’s ambition — and whether Erivo’s performance turns into the Best Actress conversation the early buzz is already predicting.