EXCLUSIVE: Up-and-comer Dexter Darden (Chang Can Dunk) has been tapped to portray all-time great boxer Muhammad Ali in Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, the forthcoming true crime limited series for Peacock. He joins an ensemble that also includes Kevin Hart, Samuel L. Jackson and Terrence Howard, as previously announced.
Created and written by Shaye Ogbonna based on the same-name podcast from iHeartPodcasts, Doghouse Pictures and Will Packer Media, Fight Night tells the infamous story of how an armed robbery during the night of Ali’s historic 1970 comeback fight changed not only one man’s life, but an entire city’s destiny.
Ogbonna and Jason Horwitch are serving as showrunners, with Craig Brewer directing the first two episodes and exec producing alongside Hart, Bryan Smiley and Mike Stein for Hart’s Hartbeat, Will Packer and Sabrina Wind for Will Packer Media, Conal Byrne, Will Pearson and Carrie Lieberman for iHeartPodcasts, Jeff Keating and Lars Jacobson. Hartbeat’s Tiffany Brown and Studio 43’s Kenny Burns are co-executive producing. Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, is the studio.
Previously, Darden has been seen in Disney+’s acclaimed basketball-themed coming-of-age film Chang Can Dunk, also taking on the series regular role of Bayside High student Devante Young in Peacock’s revival of Saved by the Bell. In addition to The Binge and It’s A Wonderful Binge, a pair of comedies produced for Hulu by LD Entertainment and American High, he’s also appeared in all three Maze Runner films, as well as the musical drama Cadillac Records starring Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright and Beyoncé.
The actor is repped by Independent Artist Group and Crimson Media.
