What's Next for the Cast of 'Moonlight'
Thanks to Moonlight‘s surprise Best Picture win over the heavily favored La La Land — and the dramatic circumstances surrounding it — Barry Jenkins’s acclaimed drama is going to be the movie on everyone’s minds for awhile. That’s great news for the film’s ensemble cast, whose careers are poised to enjoy an Oscar bump. If you haven’t seen their stellar work in Moonlight yet, you’ve got multiple options to rectify that: 2016’s Best Picture winner is still playing in select theaters and can also be rented or purchased on streaming services like Amazon and iTunes. Moonlight will make its Blu-ray bow on Feb. 28, sporting such bonus features as a commentary track with Jenkins and making-of featurettes. (Watch an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip from the Blu-ray here.) Beyond that, here’s where you can look for some of Moonlight‘s stars to pop up next — in addition to those new Calvin Klein ads, that is.
Related: Oscars 2017: Why the ‘Moonlight’ Best Picture Win Is a Really Big Deal
(Note: At press time, Janelle Monáe and young actors Alex Hibbert and Jaden Piner had no announced projects.)
Mahershala Ali (Juan)
Already a familiar face on television thanks to memorable roles on such series as The 4400, House of Cards and Luke Cage, Ali has become a similarly recognizable big-screen presence with appearances in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Hidden Figures and Kicks. But it’s his turn as Moonlight‘s sensitive drug dealer that really proved the game-changer, earning him accolades and a statue for Best Supporting Actor — the first Oscar victory ever for a Muslim actor.
Sundance audiences have already gotten their first look at Ali’s next act; he’s part of the hip hop biopic Roxanne Roxanne, which premiered at Park City in January. Acquired by new distributor, Neon, the film costars Ali as Cross, a small-time crook who takes charge of the fledgling career of Queens-based rapper Roxanne Shanté (played onscreen by Chanté Adams).
Look for him to join a bigger weight class of villain in the James Cameron-backed blockbuster, Alita: Battle Angel. Ali is set to play Vector (plus a second mystery role), a futuristic gladiatorial fixer who mixes it up with a memory-challenged cyborg bounty hunter (Rosa Salazar). Also starring fellow Oscar winners Jennifer Connelly and Christoph Waltz, and directed by Robert Rodriguez, the reportedly $200 million Alita is scheduled for a July 20, 2018 debut.
Naomie Harris (Paula)
Harris had a mere three days to shoot her Moonlight role as the drug-addicted mother of the film’s central character Chiron. But she made each of those days count, delivering a searing portrayal that earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination. Her next role will require a bit more of a time commitment. Harris has been tapped to star opposite Dwayne Johnson in Rampage, an effects-heavy monster movie based on the classic arcade game. Due in theaters on April 20, 2018, it’s the Rock’s second video game-to-movie adaptation after the 2006 non-classic Doom, and reunites him with his San Andreas director Brad Peyton.
October 19, 2018 sees the launch of Andy Serkis’ long-delayed directorial debut, Jungle Book, a motion capture re-telling of Rudyard Kipling’s classic novel that features Harris as Nisha, a member of the wolf pack that raises “man cub” Mowgli. Originally filmed in 2015, the movie was pushed back twice in the wake of Disney’s wildly successful The Jungle Book adaptation, which won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. And there’s always the prospect of another 007 adventure for the modern-day Moneypenny; Harris recently said that Daniel Craig might not be as done with James Bond as he’s previously suggested.
Trevante Rhodes (Chiron)
Rhodes delivers a beautifully vulnerable performance as the eldest version of Chiron, hiding the character’s turbulent emotions inside a muscular body. So you might experience a little whiplash when you see the 27-year-old actor as a more traditional alpha male in Netflix’s upcoming drama, Burning Sands, which premieres on the streaming service on March 10 following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. A harsh look at the hazing abuses happening behind the closed doors of African-American fraternities, Sands casts Rhodes as Fernander, the dean of his frat house’s pledges, who happily dishes out punishments to three new applicants. Watch the trailer below
Coincidentally, Rhodes will appear alongside La La Land star Ryan Gosling in Terrence Malick’s latest feature, Song to Song. Premiering on March 17 — three weeks after the Oscar night snafu heard ’round the world — the move takes place against the backdrop of the Austin music scene. Be forewarned, though: Song to Song was shot in 2012 and Malick has a well-known track record of cutting actors out of his movies completely during his lengthy editing process. So we’ll have to wait and see what, if anything, of Rhodes’s performance survives in the theatrical cut. That likely won’t be a problem with the film he’s currently shooting, The Predator, Shane Black’s reboot of the 1987 action favorite due out on February 9, 2018.
André Holland (Kevin)
As the object of Chiron’s affection, Holland provides Moonlight‘s main character with a safe harbor and a good meal in the story’s moving final chapter. Theater fans can currently watch the actor take center stage in a new Broadway production of August Wilson’s Jitney. And he’ll have a small, but important role in A Wrinkle In Time, Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved young adult novel, slated for an April 6, 2018 release. DuVernay previously cast Holland in her Best Picture-nominated biopic, Selma, and he relished the opportunity to be part of her first big-budget studio movie. “Ava is such a wonderful director and a natural leader,” Holland told Yahoo Movies recently. “Seeing her work on Wrinkle was really cool; it’s a $100 million movie, but to watch her retain her natural indie spirit feels like you’re making something special.” (DuVernay posted a picture of her and Holland hanging at an Oscars after-party on Twitter Sunday night.)
Ashton Sanders (Chiron, age 16)
The 21-year-old Sanders is gearing up to film Captive State, a futuristic thriller set in an alien-occupied Chicago. Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt is behind the camera, while the rest of the cast includes Vera Farmiga and John Goodman. No release date has been announced yet, but expect Captive State to premiere sometime in 2018.
Jharrel Jerome (Kevin, age 16)
Jerome will next come between a serial killer (Harry Treadway) and his police detective target (Brendan Gleeson) in Mr. Merecdes, a television adaption of the Stephen King novel that David E. Kelly is overseeing for the Audience Network. He also has a role in the as-of-yet unreleased indie prison drama, Monster, starring Jeffrey Wright and Jennifer Ehle.
We talked to the ‘Moonlight’ cast before their historic win:
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