photos by KeN-K Media
It was a RIOTUS night out last week when photographer KeN-K and I met up at Busboys & Poets for an exclusive screening of the premiere episode of the new Apple TV+ limited series Manhunt. Based on the Edgar Award-winning non-fiction book from James L. Swanson, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, Manhunt is a conspiracy thriller that dives into one of the most infamous crimes in history: the hunt for John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln and escaped from the Ford Theater on a broken leg.
After we watched the first episode (have you seen it yet?), Theodore Johnson from the Washington Post sat down with Monica Beletsky, the showrunner and executive producer, to tell us why the making of Manhunt is just as intriguing as the thrills on screen. Beletsky said it all started with the question, “What if Lincoln had lived? How would things be different?” That question caught fire and became a reversal of the story we think we know.
Can we talk about Edwin Stanton? Because he is the inspiration that put the events in Manhunt into motion. Played by a steady and at times unreadable but emotionally rich Tobias Menzies, Stanton was the Attorney General who became ‘president’ for 12 hours until Johnson’s swearing-in. But this series isn’t a whodunit (we already know who), it’s a who else might’ve done it? Who funded it? Who else helped? As Theodore Johnson said, it’s “about the man hunting as much as the manhunt.”
Cracking the code of this version of the assassination took work. Mostly because everyone else who attempted it wanted to center John Wilkes Booth (played with cunning cravings and a need for fame by Anthony Boyle). Beletsky decided to approach from another direction, another POV. She made Stanton her hero. After all, Stanton was the one who pushed Lincoln toward abolition. And he credited Frederick Douglass with the ideas that allowed him to win Lincoln over to give the vote to Black men.
This is where the story got personal. Beletsky shared that her ancestors were enslaved near where they shot Manhunt in Savannah, GA. “She [my great-great-grandmother] had that life and I get to have this life,” Beletsky said, followed by tears.
That’s what makes the character of Mary Simms mean so much. Played by Lovie Simone, who brings an unwavering spirit and sense of self to the character, Simms was one of the first Black people to testify in court in America. Although left as a mere footnote in the Booth trial transcripts, Beletsky brought Simms into the spotlight, drawing from the lives of three historic Black women to shape her character.
During the first episode, KeN-K leaned over and mentioned how well-shot and written the series is. And it’s true, there’s an urgency about the show, an unflinching realness—blood and war mixed with levity and the hopes of the time, crushed but still vital. Beletsky wanted to show why this Manhunt was important to Stanton but also to the nation. She was fascinated by the details, for example, he wanted to execute the Confederates, while Lincoln wanted leniency.
Is this a sign of the times, a case of history repeating? Beletsky started her writers room in 2020 and what started as historic just kept getting more relevant. On Jan 6, the Manhunt writers watched as a coup unfolded, leading to Stanton’s line (and I’m paraphrasing from memory), “We elect presidents through democracy, not through coups.” Let us hope that holds true.
Stanton isn’t the only historically well-rounded reimagining in Manhunt. Let’s take it back to Booth. He was the third most famous actor in a family of them and to prove his theatricality, he was known to wear all black. According to costume designer Katie Irish, the trope of the villain wearing all black comes from John Wilkes Booth. In one of the most underrated lines in the first episode, Booth says, “I literally broke a leg.”
Back to that idea of a whodunit or more aptly a procedural, Beletsky turned Stanton into a detective because, let’s be real, it’s good TV. She told Apple they needed to get him out from behind his desk, which is historically accurate, and said, “Put him on a horse.”
Beletsky also added how much Booth wanted to be a hero. Adding another level of fascination. They call him a “symbol” in the show. And yeah, he’d be a bigger scandal than the missing princess right now. He probably would’ve confessed his sins on TikTok on horseback – instantly viral.
RIOTUS 