Exclusive: Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Regina Hall talk post-apocalyptic rock opera film O'Dessa
Playing on Hulu from Searchlight Pictures on March 20 is the post-apocalyptic rock opera film O'Dessa, written and directed Geremy Jasper and starring Sadie Sink, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Regina Hall, Murray Bartlett.
Jasper’s post-apocalyptic tale centers on O’Dessa Galloway (Sadie Sink), a young woman living on a desolate, polluted farm with her mother. O’Dessa yearns for the experiences and adventures that lie just beyond the horizon. That inner fire burns in part due to the mythology surrounding her family, a legacy of crooning “Ramblers” who traveled the world with a troubadour spirit. It’s a mythology her mother sought to bury after O’Dessa’s absentee father passed along the prophecy that the “Seventh Son” – the seventh generation of Ramblers – would bring everlasting change to the ruined world with the help of a mysterious stringed instrument known as the “Willa.”
When the “Willa” is stolen as soon as O’Dessa steps away from the farmland she’s always known, she sets off on a mission to reclaim her family heirloom and fulfill the prophecy. Landing in the decrepit, perverted, dystopian burgh of Satylite City, O’Dessa finds herself swept up in a crossfire romance with the beguiling Euri Dervish (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), whose status as the sex symbol of the city and boy-toy of its crime lord , Neon Dion (Regina Hall),puts O’Dessa in a dangerous spot. To recover the “Willa” and change the destiny of a seemingly doomed world, O’Dessa must venture from Satylite City into a realm known as “Onederworld,” where she faces her final challenge against the Oz-like figure Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett).
Produced by Michael Gottwald, Noah Stahl, and Erika Milutin, the film premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival in the Narrative Spotlight section.
Harrison most recently voiced the role of Scar in Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa: The Lion King for Disney. Prior to that he played Martin Luther King Jr. in National Geographic’s Genius: MLK/X and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges in Searchlight’s Chevalier. No stranger to the music world, he played blues legend B.B. King in Baz Luhrmann’s Warner Bros smash Elvis and starred opposite Peter Dinklage and Haley Bennett in Joe Wright’s take on Cyrano.
Hall starred in the 2022 Peacock’s miniseries The Best Man: The Final Chapters, which reunited her with the original cast of The Best Man. She prior to that starred in and produced Focus Features, Peacock and Monkeypaw‘s dark comedy Honk for Jesus. Save your Soul. Hall has also exec produced and starred in Mariama Diallo’s Prime Video psychological horror pic Master.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales spoke with Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Regina Hall about their roles in O’dessa.
