Genius Season 4 will now focus on Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X

Deadline

The Disney+ anthology series from National Geographic will for the first time focus on two historical figures in a single season. When Season 4 was first announced in December 2020, King was announced as the sole subject. Titled Genius: MLK/X, Season 4 will “explore the formative years, pioneering accomplishments, dueling philosophies and key personal relationships of the pair," per Deadline. "While King advanced racial equality through nonviolent protest, Malcolm X argued forcefully for Black empowerment, identity and self-determination. With their formidable wives, Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz, by their sides, King and Malcolm X became synonymous with the civil rights era and the fight for racial and economic justice. While they met only once and often challenged each other’s views, neither would have been as successful without the other." King and Malcolm X met just once, at the U.S. Senate in 1964, during a hearing about the U.S. Civil Rights Act. Power vets Raphael Jackson and Damione Macedon will serve as showrunners, with Shots Fired co-creators Reggie Rock Bythewood and Gina Prince-Bythewood also on board as executive producers along with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. Jeff Stetson, who wrote the 1987 play The Meeting about an imaginary meeting between King and Malcolm X, will pen the pilot.