Underground premiere date, trailers for WGN America drama

“Welcome to the underground.”

Historial drama Underground will premiere March 9, WGN America announced Monday. The network also released the first two trailers for the series which follows a group of slaves escaping from their captivity during Civil War-era America.

In the trailers (above and below), we meet Noah, the idealistic leader of the group of runaway slaves, and Rosalee, a domestic slave experiencing much of the world for the first time as she finally escapes the house. The pair lead the action of the show, and are portrayed by Aldis Hodge (Straight Outta Compton) and Jurnee Smollett-Bell (Friday Night Lights) respectively.

The series is highly stylized and and incorporates modern hip-hop for the score, as first seen in the short teaser released earlier this month. Executive producer John Legend makes a story set a century and a half in the past feel fresh by setting the action to songs by Kanye West and A$AP Rocky.

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The show will also focus on the white supporters that went against the law to house the men and women fleeing towards freedom. This includes abolitionist lawyer John Hawkes, played by Marc Blucas (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and his wife Elizabeth, played by Jessica De Gouw (Arrow). There’s also Christopher Meloni’s character, whom we see pointing a pair of pistols at men hunting for runaway slaves in the trailers, but whose allegiances we can’t yet pin down.

The ten-episode first season of Underground debuts Wednesday, March 9 on WGN America.