Spike Lee’s first TV series, “She’s Gotta Have It,” will launch on Netflix this Thanksgiving, Nov. 23, the streaming giant announced Monday.
The 10-episode series is billed by the company as a “contemporary update” of Lee’s 1986 debut film of the same name.
DeWanda Wise (“Shots Fired”) leads the show as Nola Darling, a Brooklyn-based artist in her late twenties struggling to define herself and divide her time amongst her friend group, her work, and her three lovers: Greer Childs (Cleo Anthony), Jamie Overstreet (Lyriq Bent) and Mars Blackmon (“Hamilton’s” Anthony Ramos). Chyna Layne, Ilfenesh Hadeara, Margot Bingha, Sydney Morton, and Joie Lee all co-star.
Lee directs all 10 episodes of the series. He also serves as the creator and a producer on the show, with Tonya Lewis Lee as executive producer, and Barry Michael Cooper and Lynn Nottage also producers.
“We are getting an opportunity to revisit these memorable characters who will still be relevant and avant garde 3 decades later,” Lee said in a statement “With all that said it was my wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, producer in her own right, who had the vision to take my film from the big screen and turn it into an episodic series. It had not occurred to me at all.”
The series marks Lee’s first real foray into television. He has previously directed TV movies and documentaries like 2006’s “When the Levee’s Broke,” which explored the U.S. government’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
Lee’s original film was shot in 12 days during the hot summer of 1986, and is regarded as a classic for ushering in a change in how African Americans are portrayed in movies.
Netflix gave a first season order to “She’s Gotta Have It” in September.
Watch the first promo for the show above.