Aldis Hodge stars as “Noah” in the upcoming WGN show Underground

“Underground” a new show whose storyline takes place during the antebellum south is set to premiere on WGN March 9. It stars Aldis Hodge (Leverage, Straight Outta Compton) and Jurnee Smollet-Bell (Friday Night Lights, The Great Debaters) as a field slave and a house slave respectively, who plan and execute a daring escape from the plantation where they’re being held captive. Underground is is being produced byJohn Legend’s production company Get Lifted and also stars Jussie Smolett (Empire) and Christopher Meloni (Law and Order SVU) .  The actors as well as the show’s writers Misha Green (Spartacus, Sons of Anarchy, Heroes) and Joe Pokaski (Daredevil, Heroes, CSI) were on hand during New York Comic Con last year and were all very vocal in pointing out that the show is not “another slave narrative”, but instead should be seen as an adventure about a daring escape. I was lucky enough to interview Hodge to get his take on things and ask him some questions about what made him decide to play a slave on network television.