The Greatest held a knockout premiere at Regal Times Square in New York City last night, with a star-studded red carpet that included an Oscar winner.
Michael B. Jordan, who is a producer on the series, casually strolled into the venue and posed for photos on the red carpet. After the screening, he made his way to the after-party at Storied NYC, where a table was marked “reserved” with a boxing glove.
This night was in celebration of a real-life superhero origin story that unfolded on a tiny street in Rome last summer, where a film crew commenced shooting Amazon MGM Studios’ latest original series.
As the first scripted series fully authorized by Muhammad Ali’s estate, it carries the blessing of the late boxer’s wife, Lonnie Ali, who has guarded her husband’s legacy for decades and lent it an authenticity it couldn’t have achieved without her help. The limited series stars Jaalen Best as the heavyweight champion in his early years, from 1960 to 1964, when he was known as Cassius Clay.
On the narrow Via Baccina side street near the city’s historic Colosseum, someone raised the actor’s arm and proclaimed him to passersby as the new world heavyweight champion. The meta moment marked Ali’s rise as a newly minted gold medalist at the 1960 Summer Olympics while also affirming Best as a hot new Gen Z actor on the rise.
The next day, sitting comfortably in a five-star hotel, the 28-year-old Virginia native examined how portraying Muhammad Ali helped him tap into himself more deeply. “Ali wanted to be great. He was just a confident person. You couldn’t tell him what he couldn’t do. I think to a certain extent that was always inside of me growing up,” he explained.
“[The role] really was finding those nuances that made us the same type of person: wanting to be different in every room you step into. I think for me now, stepping into the shoes that I’m stepping into, my life changing in different ways that I’ve never seen before, it allows me to lean on him a lot in his experiences to help me through this process.”
Beyond the Italian backdrop, The Greatest, executive produced by JAŸ-Z and Jordan, takes place primarily in Ali’s hometown of Louisville, Kentucky — home of the Kentucky Derby — during the racially segregated Jim Crow era. The series follows the family drama among Ali, his beloved mother, Odessa “Bird” Clay (Dana Gourrier), his father, Cassius Clay Sr. (Omari Hardwick), and his younger brother, Rudy (Kai Parham), taking viewers through Ali’s formative years as an American icon.
Sitting on a small chaise lounge with Best, creator and show runner Ben Watkins, from Prime Video’s hit series Cross, is already dreaming about the real opponents he’ll likely bring to the screen in future seasons of The Greatest. Ali’s 1964 opponent, Sonny Liston, appears in season one.
Season two would culminate with the fight with Joe Frazier. “The same way we treat Liston as a main character, season two will treat Frazier as a main character, and then George Foreman,” Watkins expounded. “We think that in order for you to really understand Muhammad Ali’s greatness, you have to understand the greatness of the men he conquered, right?”
That attention to detail also extends to the look and feel of The Greatest, with costume designer Marci Rodgers outfitting everyone in 1960s finery. The Howard University alum is a film-industry name known for the exquisite costuming in this year’s Michael biopic, as well as past projects like Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman and She’s Gotta Have It. Rodgers tells EBONY that the reds, whites and blues noticeable in everyone’s wardrobe, particularly in episode one, are all intentional.
“Symbolically, it represents the freedom of our flag,” she said. “And to a degree, it represents the lack of freedom in our flag. That duality is quite important, because we see it to be true when Ali goes back home. He thinks he’s supposed to be celebrated by the people of Louisville. He’s, unfortunately, reminded that that’s not the case. And he throws his [Olympic] medal away, which is almost like him throwing the American flag away.”
The series adds to the filmic history of Muhammad Ali, which already famously includes Will Smith’s Oscar-nominated turn in Ali, the documentary When We Were Kings about the Rumble in the Jungle WBC belt, which he won after defeating George Foreman in 1974, and many more. The Greatest takes pains to present the influence of Ali’s father, an element seldom seen in other projects.
Making a special appearance at another Manhattan screening for the series, Hardwick praised his on-screen son while putting a button on the importance of Muhammad Ali to the modern-day moment. “Ali kind of knew that life was fleeting as it pertained to being a fighter,” he said during a spirited Q&A afterwards.
Veering into Black folks’ centuries-old battle against white supremacy, Hardwick sadly notes that his parents recently told him today’s progress level in that fight resembles the pre-civil rights 1930s. “If that’s the case, we’re still fighting, and that alone makes Ali the greatest,” he declared.
“There’s nobody who can top all the things that he not only fought, but he’s still fighting through us.”
The Greatest premieres on Prime Video on November 4.