When it comes to stories told by empowering, inspirational women in history, upcoming Netflix project The Six Triple Eight has everything you might need. And it's just dropped an amazing new trailer.
It follows the story of a group of women of colour taking on adversity during WW2 – starring some serious Hollywood talent, including none other than Oprah Winfrey. Co-written and directed by actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry, it will look at a little-known – but no less heroic and important – real-life army unit that consisted of women of colour. Their mission was to deliver mail to soldiers to maintain morale – under circumstances rife with sexism and racism.
Kerry Washington stars as Major Charity Adams – the first African-American woman to lead a World War Two battalion – alongside Oprah Winfrey who will play a true icon in civil rights history.
Here's everything else you need to know about The Six Triple Eight.
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The Six Triple Eight plot
The film's plot synopsis reads: “During World War II, the US Army's only all-Black, all-women battalion takes on an impossible mission: sorting through a three-year backlog of 17 million pieces of mail that hadn't been delivered to American soldiers and finish within six months.”
The film won't shy away from the discrimination these women faced as they attempted to carry out such a huge wartime task, while living in segregated housing. “Despite facing racism and sexism – and gruelling working conditions – they were committed to serving their country with honour and distinction. Given an extraordinary mission and united in their determination, these unsung heroes delivered hope and shattered barriers,” the synopsis continues.
The Six Triple Eight producer Nicole Avant spoke at the Tribeca Film Festival this year about the human impact of the film's story. “Every single person, Black, white, anywhere in between, male, female, anybody can see themselves in those characters,” she said. “Because all stories, to me, are human stories. Everything to me is about humanity.”
Kerry added that she felt the real-life members of the 6888 as a presence while they filmed. “I felt like these women were with us in this process,” she added. “You felt their spirit all the time.”
Is The Six Triple Eight based on a true story?
It is indeed – the film was primarily inspired by Tyler Perry's real-life relationship with a member of the battalion named Lena Derriecott King. She died at the age of 100 earlier this year. After speaking to her about her time with the 6888, he was inspired to make a movie about it.
“We sat in her house for a couple of hours just talking, having a great conversation,” Perry said in a tribute video to King. “And when I left there I had a whole movie in my mind that I wanted to write for her.”
The female battalion consisted of 855 women who were deployed from the US to Europe in February 1945.
The Six Triple Eight cast
Alongside Oprah Winfrey (!) and Kerry Washington, Sam Waterston and Susan Sarandon, as well as Breaking Bad's Dean Norris, the wider cast includes Ebony Obsidian, Milauna Jackson, Kylie Jefferson, Shanice Shantay, Sarah Jeffery, Pepi Sonuga, Moriah Brown, Jeanté Godlock, Jay Reeves, Jeffery Johnson, Baadja-Lyne Odums, Donna Biscoe, Gregg Sulkin and Scott Daniel Johnson.
According to IMDB, Waterston and Sarandon will play President and Eleanor Roosevelt respectively, while Winfrey will be playing Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, a civil rights activist who is known to history as the “First Lady of Negro America”.
The Six Triple Eight release date
It will be released into select UK cinemas on 6 December, before dropping on Netflix on 20 December.
The Six Triple Eight trailer
Watch below. We can't wait to see the stories of these amazing women brought to the big and small screen.
