Disney has unveiled the official trailer for its biopic film on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s life and family, Rise nearly a month before its scheduled June 24 release on DisneyPlus.
Real-life brothers Uche and Ral Agada star as Giannis and Thanasis, respectively. Rise follows the lives of the Antetokounmpos, a Nigerian immigrant family struggling to make do in Greece amid daily threats of deportation.
As Charles (Dayo Okeniyi) and Vera (Yetide Badaki) Antetokounmpo navigate these stroms, Giannis and Thanasis play basketball with a local team. In the film, viewers will watch as the boys discover their great basketball talents rising to world champions.
The Akin Omotoso directed film kicked off production last year, and in December, Disney announced that Giannis would serve as executive producer for the film.
The official synopsis for the trailer reads: “After emigrating to Greece from Nigeria, Vera and Charles Antetokounmpo struggled to survive and provide for their five children while living under the daily threat of deportation. With their oldest son still in Nigeria with relatives, the couple were desperate to obtain Greek citizenship but found themselves undermined by a system that blocked them at every turn.
When they weren’t selling items to tourists on the streets of Athens with the rest of the family, encouraged by their father, the brothers would sneak away to play basketball with a local youth team. Latecomers to the sport, they discovered their great abilities on the basketball court and worked hard to become world class athletes. With the help of an agent, Giannis entered the NBA draft in 2013 in a long-shot prospect that would change not only his life but the life of his entire family.”
