Nia Long and Larenz Tate’s Maxwell-Inspired Netflix Movie Adds New Cast Members

Nia Long and Larenz Tate are already on board Eugene Ashe’s latest project, Don’t Ever Wonder. The Sylvie’s Love director co-wrote the script with Kay Oyegun for the upcoming Netflix movie.

Late last week, ten more cast members were announced, and there were a bunch of familiar faces.

Blair Underwood, Laz Alonso, Susan Kelechi Watson, Pauletta Washington and Dennis Haysbert have been added, along with Chanté Adams, who starred in A Journal for Jordan, Algee Smith of The New Edition Story and Euphoria, Grasie Mercedes of Grand Crew, Navia Robinson from Raven’s Home and Yolonda Ross, who starred on The Chi, join the cast as well.

Maxwell is among the producers who include James Lopez, Charles D. King and Poppy Hanks for Macro Film Studios. John D. Hammond, Tate, and Long are also aboard as executive producers. Macro has backed other projects, including Judas and the Black Messiah, which won an Oscar for its star, Daniel Kaluuya.

So far, nobody knows exactly what the plot of the movie will be, other than its a love story. Maxwell’s 1996 debut Urban Hang Suite includes the hit “Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder)” from which the movie’s title is drawn. Along with the late D’Angelo, Maxwell is considered to be an essential artist in the ‘neo-soul’ movement, a group of creatively aligned artists who released classic albums in the ’90s and the early aughts.

“Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder)” was the album’s second single, which eventually climbed to #8 on the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart. The song’s success helped Urban Hang Suite go platinum, establishing Maxwell as a superstar at just 23 years old.

The song definitively reassures a beloved partner that they are adored, desired and wanted, and is considered among Maxwell’s most gorgeous mid-tempo ballads. So it’s safe to say we can expect a love story that plays up the chemistry Long and Tate already displayed in Love Jones, the 1997 romance that put both of their careers on an upward trajectory.

“I’ve always loved a classic Hollywood story; the big, sweeping ones, like The Way We Were, Mahogany, Paris Blues…,” Ashe told Final Draft in September. “The chemistry between the characters, chance meetings, and the themes of ‘unfinished business’. Those big Hollywood endings, the melodrama and the pacing, the framing of big, beautiful shots on Super 16. Those films were definitely an influence on me when I was writing Sylvie’s Love and I wanted the end result to mimic the feel of the great classics.”