Netflix has released first look pictures from Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Chadwick Boseman’s final film before his death after a private four-year struggle with colon cancer.

The film, directed by George C. Wolfe and based on Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson’s 1982 play, follows Ma Rainey (Viola Davis), her Black horn player, and her white management team as they navigate racial tensions in Chicago in 1927.

Ma’s lover Levee, played by Chadwick Boseman, was a young, ambitious trumpeter who sought to make his own impact in the music world.

Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom | CREDIT: NETFLIX

“I reveled in her, I swished my hips every day. There was such joy in that freedom of expression,” Viola Davis told The New York Times of playing Ma Rainey in the George C. Wolfe film. “I have to remember that I don’t have to barter for my worth. I was just born with it.”

The streaming service shared four images from the forthcoming drama on Wednesday.

Ruben Santiago-Hudson adapted the picture, which was produced by Todd Black and Denzel Washington.

“He did a fantastic job, and now he’s gone,” Washington said of Boseman to The New York Times. “I still can’t believe what I’m seeing.”

Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Taylor Paige, and Michael Potts are among the other cast members.

In a statement at the time, Wolfe stated, “Working with Chadwick on Ma Rainey was a glorious experience. Everyday we all got to witness the ferocity of his talent and the gentleness of his heart. A truly blessed, loving, gifted and giving human being.”

On December 18, the film will be released on Netflix.

Looking back on the time they were filming, Davis confessed she had no idea what Boseman was going through – making the movie while battling cancer.

“I’m looking back at how tired he always seemed,” Davis told the Times. “I look at his beautiful, unbelievable team that was meditating over him and massaging him, and I now realize everything they were trying to infuse in him to keep him going and working at his optimal level. And he received it.”

Sienna Miller, Boseman’s “21 Bridges” co-star, said on Monday that the late actor split a percentage of his income from the film with her in order for her to continue working on the movie as a co-producer. As tributes to Boseman continue to flood in, Disneyland has now revealed a new mural in his honor.