Hulu's latest psychological thriller premiered on the streamer and Disney+ on September 26 and stars award-winning actor Willem Dafoe. The Man in My Basement premiered in the Discovery titles at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival before its limited theatrical release.
The Man in My Basement is the feature directorial debut of Nadia Latif, based on the novel by Edgar Award-winning author Walter Mosley. Co-written by Latif and Mosely, the movie stars Dafoe, who is joined by Emmy nominee Corey Hawkins, Anna Diop, Jonathan Ajayi, Gershwyn Eustache Jnr, Pamela Nomvete, and Tamara Lawrence. The film is produced by Andscape, the Black content studio of The Walt Disney Company.
Man in My Basement synopsis: The film centers on Charles Blakey (Hawkins), an African American man facing foreclosure on his ancestral home. When a strange, wealthy European businessman, Anniston Bennet (Dafoe), offers an exorbitant sum to rent his basement for the summer, Charles accepts. This decision plunges him into a disturbing situation that forces him to confront his family's history, themes of race, identity, and power.
Hawkins has an impressive list of credits to his name including recent roles in Poker Face, The Piano Lesson, The Color Purple, and The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
The actor joined AMC's post-apocalyptic series The Walking Dead as Heath, a resident of Alexandria, in season 6. Heath is one of many characters whose stories dropped off, and the character was never heard from again in the main series. Showrunner Angela Kang did clarify that Heath was taken by Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) and traded to the CRM (Civic Republic Military). Fans hoped to see Heath in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, which was set at the CRM, but sadly, this wasn't to be.
Next, Hawkins will star in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey with fellow TWD alums Ryan Hurst, Jon Bernthal, and Samantha Morton. The movie will also feature the talents of Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Benny Safdie, and more. The movie is based on Homer's same-titled poem and is described as a mythical action film.
In 2026, the actor will star in Bart Layton's crime movie, Crime 101. The film is led by Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo, who are joined by Barry Keoghan, Halle Barry, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, in a story focused on detective Lou Lubesnick (Ruffalo), who tracks a jewel thief (Hemsworth) who follows guidelines for the perfect heist known as Crime 101 rules. The movie is scheduled for release on February 13, 2026.