Ethan Hawke is out for blood as abolitionist John Brown in Good Lord Bird trailer

"All of this is true. Most of it happened."

Based on James McBride's 2013 novel of the same name, Showtime's new limited series Good Lord Bird is chronicling abolitionist John Brown's (Ethan Hawke) violent pursuit to end slavery. And first trailer shows that, like Brown, Hawke is going all-out.

"Whatever he believed, he believed, didn't matter if it was true or not," says Onion (Joshua Caleb Johnson), an enslaved teenager who becomes a member of Brown's outlaw family. "The old man was nuttier than a squirrel turd."

Hailing from Hawke and Jason Blum, Good Lord Bird's talented ensemble also includes Ellar Coltrane (Hawke's Boyhood son), Maya Hawke (Hawke's real-life daughter), Steve Zahn, Wyatt Russell, Orlando Jones, and Daveed Diggs as Frederick Douglass.

The seven-part limited series premieres Aug. 9. Watch the trailer above.

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