Washington Black creator on Lucifer star Tom Ellis's last-minute casting in pivotal role
Selwyn Seyfu Hinds promises a "challenging emotional reaction" to the prominent character.
Washington Black creator Selwyn Seyfu Hinds has revealed that Lucifer alum Tom Ellis was a late addition to the period drama, in a role that demands nothing short of a "huge emotional range".
The story follows the intrepid young Washington Black (a role shared by Eddie Karanja and Ernest Kingsley Jr), starting from his childhood years on a sugar plantation, where he first encounters inventor Christopher 'Titch' Wilde (Tom Ellis).
Sterling K Brown (Paradise) was first to board the project as both executive producer and Wash's mentor figure Medwin, while Ellis was among the last to sign on, mere weeks before cameras were set to start rolling.
Washington Black creator Hinds told RadioTimes.com that casting Titch was "certainly one of the bigger challenges in casting", explaining that the pivotal figure serves as a "gateway to Wash's growth".
"He was also going to have to be the kind of character that you both love and have a challenging emotional reaction to because of what evolves later in the story," explained Hinds.
"So it was going to require an actor of a really huge emotional range, which is why it took such a long time to find it. I spoke to Tom when we were already in Canada, on set, cameras were gonna roll in a few weeks."
The writer recalled: "But as soon as we had that conversation, he was so excited about the role. He was so excited about all of the layers that are required that it felt like he had been baked into it from day one, the way Sterling [K Brown] was."
Ellis recently concluded a popular run on the fantasy crime drama Lucifer, where he played a crime-solving devil (don't overthink it), and will soon be seen in the hotly anticipated adaptation of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club.
Washington Black was a long-running project for many involved, with filming taking place from March 2022 until September 2024, due in part to problems relating to COVID-19, the 2023 writers' strike and the international scope of the production.
Executive producer Kim Harrison concluded: "The resilience that we had to kind of deliver this and continue through... I think it really speaks to the love for the project."
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Washington Black airs on Hulu in the US and is available to stream on Disney+ from Wednesday 23rd June 2025 – sign up to Disney+ from £4.99 a month or £89.90 for a year.
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Authors
David Craig is the Senior Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest and greatest scripted drama and comedy across television and streaming. Previously, he worked at Starburst Magazine, presented The Winter King Podcast for ITVX and studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield.
