The story of Mike Tyson’s rise and reign has been told and retold for decades, but it’s Hulu’s turn to share their feature about the sports giant. The ups and downs of Tyson’s career, personal life, and legal troubles often read like a story crafted in fiction, but the boxing legend has confirmed these tales in his repeated, candid interviews, as well as on his podcast.
Today (June 8), Hulu delivered the teaser to MIKE, their eight-episode series, and Entertainment Weekly reported that Moonlight‘s Trevante Rhodes would be tackling the title character. The trailer shows that audiences will yet again receive a dramatized look at Tyson’s upbringing, fame, and time in prison after being convicted of rape.
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Despite his controversies, fans still adore Tyson and according to the series’ showrunner Karin Gist, MIKE wasn’t created for the world to laud over the sports champion.
“The show is not meant to glorify his life,” Gist says. “We were never trying to say that Mike Tyson is a hero or Mike Tyson is a villain. Our goal was to take a very complicated and controversial figure and try to get under the hood of what he was praised and vilified for while staying true to our North Star of ‘no one person is one thing.'”
“The show is not supposed to be a love letter or an indictment, which is why we had to include all the good, the bad, and the complexities of both,” Gist continued. “Fortunately, as a global society, we are all talking more and more about things that were once taboo or only whispered about among friends — rape, sexual assault, consent to name a few. Putting stories like this in the spotlight and pulling them out of the shadows is crucial to moving forward and getting the conversation to the next level. The goal was not to shy away from the scary or uncomfortable parts of the story just because they are scary and uncomfortable.”
MIKE will premiere on Hulu on August 25.
Check out the trailer for MIKE below and let us know if you’ll be tuning in.
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