DISNEY+'s GENIUS: MLK/X
- Ron Cephas Jones, Gary Carr, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Lennie James, LisaGay Hamilton, Ashley Romans, Donal Logue and Griffin Matthews have joined the cast of the upcoming fourth installment of the anthology series. Jones won two Emmy Awards for his guest performance in NBC's This Is Us. Carr currently stars in Amazon's The Peripheral, which is now airing its first season. Point-Du Jour starred in the Showtime limited series The Good Lord Bird. James currently stars in AMC's Fear the Walking Dead, which has been renewed for an eighth season. Hamilton recently recurred on HBO's Winning Time and Netflix's The Lincoln Lawyer. Romans starred in FX's one-season drama Y: The Last Man. Logue starred for two seasons in History's Vikings and five seasons in FOX's Gotham. Matthews starred for two seasons in HBO Max's The Flight Attendant and recurred on Disney+'s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
- Jones will play Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Powerful, confident and complicated, he is a teacher and mentor of Malcolm X (Aaron Pierre) and referred to humbly all members of the NOI as "The Honorable One."
- Carr will play Clyde X, an official at Temple Number 7 in Harlem and Elijah Muhammad's trusted confidant. He is the eyes and ears in New York City, a position he is deeply proud of. His history is one crowded in mystery, stints in prison and time in the army only help to cast a shadow of a man who carries a menacing presence. But one thing that is clear is his deep loyalty to the Nation of Islam and his leader, the honorable Elijah Muhammad. Clyde is impressed but also secretly jealous of Malcolm X's success and especially of Elijah's trust and love for him. Clyde likes consistency and order. Challenges to the chain of command disturb him.
- Point-Du Jour will play Ralph Abernathy, a Baptist minister and Civil Rights leader in the 1960s. He is a man of principle with a deeply rooted sense of justice.
- James will recur as Daddy King aka Dr. Michael King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) father. A preacher at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia in the year 1934, he is an imposing figure, fiery, impassioned, and inspiring.
- Hamilton will recur as Alberta King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s mother, the "First Lady" of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Gifted, loving, skilled and wise, she is a constant source of strength to the King family.
- Romans will recur as Ella Mae, Malcolm's half-sister.
- Logue will recur as Strom Thurmond, an American politician, decorated military officer, attorney, and former South Carolina governor who then represented South Carolina in the United States Senate starting in 1954.
- Matthews will recur as Bayard Rustin, a trusted advisor to the reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. since the days of the Montgomery bus boycott, and helps plan the March on Washington serving as the Deputy Director of the march. Inspired by Quaker pacifism with socialism and the theory of non-violent protest, he combines these threads into his own personal and working philosophy. In his own right, Rustin is a civil rights lion who is impeccably dressed in pressed pastel Oxford slacks, perfectly creased, with a pair of horn-rimmed eyeglasses, and yet there's something quite intimidating about him.
