{"id":611472,"date":"2026-04-16T20:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611472\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T20:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:43:12","slug":"children-of-blood-and-bone-trailer-debuts-epic-african-fantasy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611472\/","title":{"rendered":"Children of Blood and Bone Trailer Debuts Epic African Fantasy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tParamount debuted the first look at its upcoming fantasy film \u201cChildren of Blood and Bone\u201d at CinemaCon<\/a>, the annual convention for movie theater owners that\u2019s underway in Las Vegas. The film is based on author Tomi Adeyemi\u2019s 2018 novel of the same name, set in a fictional African kingdom full of magic.<\/p>\n

\n\tGina Prince-Bythewood directs \u201cChildren of Blood and Bone,\u201d her first movie since 2022\u2019s \u201cThe Woman King,\u201d which is set to release in theaters and Imax on Jan. 15, 2027. The film stars Thuso Mbedu, who made her breakout film debut in \u201cThe Woman King,\u201d as Zelie, a magic user who can command undead spirits. A trailer for the film, which played exclusively at CinemaCon, reveals Zelie\u2019s homeland, the kingdom of Orisha, which is divided into various clans with different abilities. Some people can manipulate water, fire, wind and earth, while others can heal injuries or see into the past or future. However, the ruthless King Saran (Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor) has suppressed magic users and enacts a rule of terror, which Zelie hopes to end in order to reunite Orisha\u2019s clans.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe action-packed and VFX-heavy clip delivers a first look at the film\u2019s all-star cast, which Variety exclusively revealed<\/a> last year. Tosin Cole plays Zelie\u2019s brother Tzain, Amandla Stenberg\u00a0is Princess Amari and Damson Idris\u00a0is Prince Inan, with Lashana Lynch, Oscar nominees Idris Elba and Cynthia Erivo, and Oscar winners Viola Davis and Regina King also taking on key roles. Like Mbedu, Davis and Lynch previously starred in Prince-Bythewood\u2019s \u201cThe Woman King.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdeyemi scored a massive publishing deal for her book series, which debuted at No. 1 on the NY Times bestseller list. She followed \u201cThe Children of Blood and Bone<\/a>\u201d with \u201cThe Children of Virtue and Vengeance\u201d in 2019 and the final book in the trilogy, \u201cThe Children of Anguish and Anarchy,\u201d in 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\tAhead of CinemaCon, Prince-Bythewood previewed the footage for industry tastemakers on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles and discussed her process of adapting Adeyemi\u2019s sweeping novel into a \u201cgrounded fantasy epic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDespite this fantastical conceit of magic and fantasy, I wanted the audience to feel grounded like they were in the real world,\u201d the filmmaker told ET\u2019s Nischelle Turner, who moderated the conversation. \u201cAnd that starts with production design. It goes to costume, it goes to casting, it goes to action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd it was of utmost importance to shoot the film in various locations across the continent of Africa. \u201cAbsolutely, we were going to shoot there,\u201d Prince-Bythewood said. \u201cThen I wanted to give the cast a 360 world to play in. That meant building, as opposed to having a CG world. Costumes drawing inspiration from all over the continent. The action: no wires, no stunt doubles. It\u2019s our cast doing the incredible fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat fight training paid off with bonus dividends. \u201cThe way I love to work is to build athletes, so that they can then do their own stunts,\u201d Prince-Bythewood added. \u201cBut I also know how hard it is, and how much it bonds actors. That\u2019s what you see on screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cChildren of Blood and Bone\u201d filmmaker Gina Prince-Bythewood (center) with costume designer Charlese Antoinette Jones and star Thuso Mbedu at a preview of the film at Paramount Studios.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJesse Grant\/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount debuted the first look at its upcoming fantasy film \u201cChildren of Blood and Bone\u201d at CinemaCon, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,263202,134,344,297047],"class_list":{"0":"post-611472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cinemacon","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-the-children-of-blood-and-bone"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}