HBO is bringing the critically acclaimed Brazilian gangster movie City of God back as a series that will stream on Max in August, and while details about the show are sparse, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has released some information about what we can expect.
City of God: The Fight Rages On is an HBO Original series that will be made up of six episodes. It’s a continuation of the semi-autobiographical novel by Paulo Lins that the original movie was based on, so you can expect the same characters to be involved.
In fact, WBD, alongside O2 Films, which produced the series, has also managed to bring back many of the original cast members, including Alexandre Rodrigues, who played Buscapé (nicknamed Rocket), Roberta Rodrigues, who played Shaggy’s girlfriend Berenice, and Edson Oliveira, who played Rocket’s childhood friend Stringy. Like the original movie, the series has also cast emerging talents from favelas in Rio de Janeiro.
City of God: The Fight Rages On – what we know so far
Originally released in 2002, City of God was set in the late 60s when the Cidade de Deus favela was formed and spans a period leading up to the 80s. The show isn’t expected to pick up where the movie left off though. Instead, it’s set in the early 2000s, two decades after the events of the film.
While the movie is centered on the diverging paths that two young men take while growing up in a poverty-stricken favela, you’re introduced to a number of different characters throughout that I suspect will play more of a bigger role in this series adaptation. The richness of these characters helped define the rawness of the original film, so I’m excited to see what a new cast will improvise.
If you haven’t seen the movie before, now is a great time to, as it will help you understand the flashbacks that are expected to be included throughout the series. WBD has said that it will use these in scenes to “reconstruct the protagonists’ memories.” City of God: The Fight Rages On will stream on Max in August.