Will Smith Hosts Netflix Docuseries ‘Amend: The Fight For America’: Premiere Date & Teaser

Will Smith is set to host Amend: The Fight for America, a Netflix documentary series that asks the evolving question, “What does it mean to be an American?” Executive produced by Smith and Larry Wilmore, the six-parter launches February 17. Check out a teaser above.

Robe Imbriano and Tom Yellin, Amend: The Fight for America explores the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — which, in 1868, promised liberty and equal protection for all persons — as America’s most enduring hallmark of democracy. The six-hour docuseries deploys a groundbreaking narrative format featuring a number of luminaries including Mahershala Ali, Diane Lane, Samuel L. Jackson, Pedro Pascal, Yara Shahidi breathing life into speeches and writings by the Fourteenth Amendment’s most ardent advocates and foes such as Frederick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Andrew Johnson among them. It also offers insights from an inclusive array of contemporary thought leaders and experts.

“We are living in unprecedented days as a society, as a country, and as a human family,” Smith said. “I believe that the cultivation of personal and historical understanding is the imperative spark igniting the flames of desperately needed compassion and healing. As Americans, we endeavor to form a more perfect union that truly establishes justice and equality for all. I believe a deeper understanding of the 14th Amendment is a critical jumping off point. Our hope with this series is to illuminate the beauty that is the promise of America and to share a message of connection and shared humanity so that we will be able to better understand and celebrate our different experiences as Americans and promote progress toward the true equality promised to all persons under the 14th amendment.”

Added Wilmore: “I hope families can watch Amend together and have the series be a compelling conversation starter. Everything we’ve seen happen in America in the last few years is about what Black people and other marginalized groups have always wanted: to make sure that we are really part of America and have everything that’s been promised to us by the Constitution. I think it’d be really fantastic if Amend helped people to better understand how special the bond can be between each of us and our country.”

Kenny Leon and Reinaldo Marcus Green directed Amend, which is produced by Westbrook Studios, The Documentary Group, Wilmore Films and MakeMake Entertainment. Along with Smith and Wilmore, the EPs are Terence Carter, Jana Babatunde-Bey, Jamal Watson, Yellin, Imbriano, Jonna Mclaughlin and Angus Wall.