Orion’s ‘Is God Is’ Lands High-Profile Summer 2026 Release in Theaters (Exclusive)
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key TakeawaysIs God Is has landed an early summer release date from Orion Pictures, a division of Amazon MGM Studios.
Playwright Aleshea Harris is directing the big screen adaptation of her acclaimed, award-winning stage play of the same name will open in cinemas May 15, 2026. That’s just around the time of the Cannes Film Festival, although there’s no word yet as to whether the movie will make an awards play, although Orion is known as a home for prestige fare.
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AdvertisementAdvertisement#_R_19jckr8lb2mav5ubsddbH1_ iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#_R_29jckr8lb2mav5ubsddbH1_ iframeIs God Ismarks Harris’ feature directorial debut, and stars Kara Young (Virgo) and Mallori Johnson (Kindred) as twin African-American sisters who were burned badly as babies in a fire that left them with permanent, disfiguring scars. Now 21 years old, they embark on an epic quest for revenge and, and along the way, confront a charged family history that will push them to extraordinary lengths.
Janelle Monáe, Erika Alexander, Mykelti Williamson and Josiah Cross co-star, with Vivica A. Fox and Sterling K. Brown also helping to round out the cast.
Producers include Viva Maude’s Tessa Thompson and Kishori Rajan, Lindens’ Riva Marker,CYRK’sJanicza Bravo alongside Harris. Stacy O’Neil, Nicole King and Kenneth Yu are executive producing.
Harris wrote the adapted script. The story opens as the twins are living a meager life in the Northeast. Everything changes when they learn their mother — who is known as “She” or “God” — is actually alive. They travel to her home in the South, when she tells them her father is responsible for the fire that caused both their burns and her own injuries. The mother dispatches them to the California desert to find him and seek retribution.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#_R_1arckr8lb2mav5ubsddbH1_ iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#_R_2arckr8lb2mav5ubsddbH1_ iframeIs God Is, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2018 at the Soho Rep, won multiple Obie awards and quickly caught the attention of top movie producers, such as Thompson. At one point, Scott Rudin and A24 were also interested in pursuing a movie adaptation.
It’s hardly a surprise why the interest. Two years earlier, Is God Is — still unproduced at that time — won the American Playwriting Foundation’s Relentless Award, established in honor of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Harris was praised for her unique take on the revenge genre, and given a cash prize of $45,000, which allowed her to have stage readings across the country.
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