Genius: MLK/X showrunners didn't want to make new season 'a Wikipedia piece'

After earlier seasons that focused on Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and Aretha Franklin, the latest edition of Genius is dedicated to two great visionaries: Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

But let's be clear: Genius: MLK/X is not the Wikipedia entry for the pair, whose dueling philosophies helped usher America through the Civil Rights Movement.

During a recent Q&A at a special screening of National Geographic's Genius season 4, which was cohosted by EW's Black Affinity group, executive producers and co-showrunners Raphael Jackson Jr. and Damione Macedon shared their vision for the newest entry in the Emmy-winning docu-drama anthology series.

"The thing that we wanted to do more than anything early in the process was to take Martin and Malcolm off the T-shirts," Jackson said of the titular characters, played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Aaron Pierre, respectively. "A lot of us know who they are as civil rights icons, but we really wanted to explore who they were as human beings first."

It was important to "expand their world" and also delve into the lives of their wives, Coretta Scott King (played by Weruche Opia) and Betty Shabazz (Jayme Lawson), because, Jackson explained, "they were just as important within the movement as Martin and Malcolm."

Macedon agreed, adding, "The intention of this series is not to be a Wikipedia piece. We are hopefully deliberately entertaining our audience as we learn about these four people. And I highlight and underline in bold 'people.' They are icons. They're all civil rights icons."

Some of the show's cast — Harrison, Pierre, Opia, and Lawson — were also on hand for the conversation, recalling the surprising things they learned about their characters during filming, like the fact that Dr. King's birth name was Michael, or that Coretta was an opera singer.

The first episode of the eight-part series debuted Feb. 1 on National Geographic and the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, timed to the beginning of Black History Month. At the end of the Q&A, Jackson expressed why it was "extremely important" to bring these stories to the screen now.

"I hearken back to a line that Malcolm says in the pilot — that every time I hear, I just love it: 'When there's breath, there's hope,'" said Jackson. "And within that line, I would hope that the audience, and then even myself personally, that as long as I'm blessed to have breath, there's hope."

He continued, "And then, ultimately, that hope should allow us to become inspired and engaged. And... I think hopefully for the audience, what we can take away from the piece is that we can find something within each one of them that can be inspirational and engage us to be active out there in the world, because now, more than ever, we need to know about the stories and the legacies of these icons. And ultimately, we can all impact change out here."

Two new episodes of Genius: MLK/X will be available weekly on National Geographic and Disney+ and Hulu throughout February.

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