ESPN will no longer air Spike Lee’s docuseries about former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
“ESPN, Colin Kaepernick and Spike Lee have collectively decided to no longer proceed with this project as a result of certain creative differences,” ESPN said in a statement to Variety. “Despite not reaching finality, we appreciate all the hard work and collaboration that went into this film.”
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Reuters broke the news after Lee told the publication on Friday that the documentary was not going to be released. “It’s not coming out. That’s all I can say,” the “Do the Right Thing” director said at a red carpet event in Beverly Hills, Calif. Asked to elaborate, Lee said, “I can’t. I signed a nondisclosure [agreement]. I can’t talk about it.”
According to a source close to the project, the decision not to move forward was made last summer and had nothing to do with the NFL, which, earlier this month, became a part owner of ESPN. The Walt Disney Company owns 80% of the sports broadcasting giant.
The project was first announced in 2020 under Kaepernick’s first-look deal with Disney through his Ra Vision Media production company. In 2022, Lee boarded the docuseries, which promised “extensive new interviews and a vast never-before-seen archive to help Kaepernick tell his story from his perspective.”
Kaepernick played for the San Francisco 49ers from 2011 until 2016, when he ignited a media firestorm after he began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and systemic racism. In 2017, Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the 49ers and was not signed by another NFL team. He filed a grievance against the league, alleging collusion among team owners, which was privately settled in 2019. In the years following his retirement from professional football, Kaepernick pivoted to activism through his nonprofit Know Your Rights Camp, as well as entertainment and media. In 2021, he co-created and narrated the limited series “Colin in Black and White,” dramatizing his adolescence, directed by Ava DuVernay.
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