The Color Purple musical adds Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, more

The Color Purple: Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, H.E.R., & more join movie musical adaptation

February 4th 2022, 8:19am

The Color Purple, Fantasia Barrino, H.E.R., movie musical, adaptation, warner bros.

The movie musical adaptation of The Color Purple has rounded out its cast and it includes Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, and H.E.R. amongst the names.

Fantasia Barrino will be making her feature film debut with the project, per The Hollywood Reporter. Barrino became known to the masses when she won season three of American Idol. The singer turned actress will be playing Celie, a role that she played on stage on Broadway in 2007. Whoopi Goldberg played the role in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated dramatic version of the story in 1985.

Also joining the cast is Taraji P. Henson as jazz singer Shug Avery and Danielle Brooks, who is reprising the role of Sofia that she played in the 2015 Broadway revival which led to her winning a Tony Award. The Sofia announcement was made during ABC’s Soul of a Nation: Screen Queens Rising, with Oprah Winfrey surprising Brooks with the news via a Zoom call. Oprah Winfrey played the role in Spielberg’s 1985 film and was also Oscar-nominated for her role.

JUST IN: @TasiasWord and @thedanieb will join the cast of @WBPictures' #TheColorPurple alongside @tarajiphenson, @HERMusicx, and Corey Hawkins!

Thanks for helping with the reveal on #SoulOfANation @oprah! https://t.co/cmCYuBDn39 pic.twitter.com/HwpR39d5WE
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 4, 2022

H.E.R will be making her feature film debut in the film after starting a stellar music career that has seen her win Grammys and a Best Original Song Oscar for “Fight For You” from the film Judas and the Black Messiah. H.E.R. will be playing Squeak in the film. Corey Hawkins rounds out the cast as Harpo, originally played by Willard Pugh in Spielberg’s film.

The Color Purple centers on a woman named Celie Harris and tracks her lifelong struggles as an African-American woman living in the South during the early 1900s. The Color Purple began as a Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel by Alice Walker and was adapted as a film directed by Steven Spielberg in 1985. Blitz Bazawule, the filmmaker behind the Beyonce-fronted Black Is King, will be taking the helm of the musical adaptation. More casting is underway as the film is in pre-production with chemistry reads happening now.

Are YOU looking forward to the movie musical adaptation of The Color Purple? Warner Bros. is set to release the film on December 20, 2023.