Boots Riley Gives First Look At Upcoming Amazon Show 'I'm A Virgo'

Five years after his theatrical breakout Sorry to Bother You, Boots Riley is bringing his new show I'm A Virgo to Prime Video.

Rapper, activist and filmmaker Boots Riley is deep in his creative bag with upcoming Prime Video series I'm A Virgo. On Monday (March 6), the Sorry to Bother You director gave an exclusive first-look to Complex. A seven-episode show, I'm A Virgo centers a 13-foot-tall Cootie (Jharrel Jerome) who lives in Oakland, California under the protection of his parents Martisse (Mike Epps) and Lafrancine (Carmen Ejogo).

Aware of how people perceive him, Cootie attempts to focus on his humanity to connect with others, namely referencing his zodiac sign to dissuade the attention from being on his height.

“People see this Black giant coming down the street. They have all sorts of ideas about what he is, what’s important, what they should be scared of, and that may be very different than what he cares about himself,” Riley told Complex. “The fact that he is a Virgo is probably the last thing that anybody cares about.”

While writing the show, Riley said that he always had Jerome in mind to play the lead character, citing his roles in Moonlight and When They See Us.

“Jharrel was the first person I said. I was writing this in 2019 when I said that, and luckily he won the Emmy, and then I said, ‘See I told you!’ There was a certain kind of actor that I needed and he was that. He disappears into this character. Folks haven’t seen him like this.”

I'm A Virgo will have a world premiere debut at SXSW on March 11 before coming to Prime Video this summer.