How ‘Underground Railroad’ Creator Barry Jenkins Got Permission for That Childish Gambino Needle Drop

TheWrap awards magazine: Jenkins, Thuso Mbedu and William Jackson Harper discuss exploring the reverberations of history for Amazon drama

underground railroad
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This story about “The Underground Railroad,” its creator Barry Jenkins, and stars Thuso Mbedu and William Jackson Harper first appeared in the Limited Series & TV Movies issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

The penultimate episode of Barry Jenkins’ Amazon Prime Video limited series “The Underground Railroad” ends with the needle drop of Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.” The song underscores a scene — spoilers to follow — in which escaped slave Cora (Thuso Mbedu) shoots and kills Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton), the slave catcher who has been dragging her back every time she makes it further on her journey to freedom from a Georgia plantation.

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