While every other studio is chasing IP and four-quadrant tentpoles, Orion is greenlighting first-time directors, literary adaptations, and revenge fables.
In theaters now is the feature-length directorial debut from Aleshea Harris, titled Is God Is, based on the 2018 Obie Award-winning play that Harris wrote. It stars two talented actors, Kara Young and Mallori Johnson, as twin sisters given one directive from their long-lost mother: kill their father. It’s a unique tale, told in a singular voice from someone who has the potential to shake up the industry if given the opportunity.
The film is distributed by Amazon MGM Studios and is an Orion Pictures production, marking a trend for the 48-year-old Amazon-owned production company. While only my editor can attest to a conversation about this very topic, it was a tweet posted on the Monday after Is God Is’s release that prompted this examination.
Taking images from four recent Orion releases, the X user simply wrote, “Orion Pictures has been absolutely killing it the past few years.” What’s so interesting about those releases? They’ve been fairly progressive when it comes to highlighting Black voices, from Is God Is and 2025’s Tessa Thompson-led Hedda (written and directed by Nia DaCosta) to 2024’s Oscar-nominated Nickel Boys (directed by RaMell Ross) and the 2022 retelling of Emmett Till’s mother Mamie’s story, Till, directed by Chinonye Chukwu. Four recent films, four newer Black voices telling non-traditional Black tales.
It leads to the obvious question, right?
Founded in 1978 and originally known as Orion Pictures Company, the company began as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former United Artists executives. (Yes, the name of the company comes from the constellation, with the thought being that the people who linked with Warner Bros. were seen as the stars of the company.) Back then, the company held a $100 million line of credit, with each project being distributed by Warner Bros. That union barely lasted five years, with Orion leaving Warner Bros. in 1982, a decision that could have been one of its better ones. One of its early successes was 1984’s Amadeus, which went on to win eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture). A number of your favorite releases from the late 1980s and early 1990s have worn that galaxy-based logo proud, from 1986’s Hoosiers and 1990’s Dances With Wolves to 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs, the first Terminator film, the RoboCop trilogy, and the iconic Phat Beach.
Despite the success of Dances With Wolves and Silence in particular, Orion had suffered losses for years prior to their release, going into bankruptcy in 1991. In 1997, MGM became its savior, purchasing the company in the midst of acquiring the libraries of a number of companies.
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While the brand’s revival started in 2013 through syndicated television and some smaller movie releases, its proper return to form kicked off in 2017. After some missteps in trying to serve the low-budget horror lane (including that 2019 Child’s Play remake), the heads behind Orion decided to take things in a different direction, specifically to “concentrate exclusively on underrepresented voices and authentic storytelling in film with a focus on … films that amplify underserved voices,” current Orion Pictures President Alana Mayo said in 2020.
Recognizing that “many filmmakers and creators who have been considered and treated as outsiders have nonetheless persisted in creating visionary films that drew audiences across the globe and defined culture” for longer than they’d like to admit, Orion Pictures made a conscious effort to serve communities that Hollywood has underserved. (MGM must have been paying attention after 2015’s Creed brought in $174.1 million and Creed II brought in $214.2 million three years later.) Mayo, who came from Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society (which is still doing big things with and for Amazon MGM), feels like the driving force behind this push and isn’t afraid to take chances. The Eric Andre-led improv prank film Bad Trip has gained steam since its 2021 release, and Jerrod Carmichael’s feature film directorial debut, On the Count of Three, is an Orion film that suffered from being released in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Till was released in October 2022, roughly seven months after the release of On the Count of Three, and while it was not a box office darling, it received mountains of critical praise.
And while Orion’s releases aren’t all Black tales (the company has received praise for films like Bottoms, co-written by and starring Rachel Sennott, about high school seniors who start a fight club), the original poster clocked exactly what Mayo and company have been trying to do with Orion. American Fiction was adapted from the challenging “Erasure” and dealt with who — and how — Black stories are told in modern society, starring Jeffrey Wright. That 2023 release came almost a year to the day before the massively well-received Nickel Boys hit theaters in 2024, leading into 2025’s Hedda and now 2026 with the release of Is God Is. All progressive Black stories told by today’s brightest Black voices. (It’s also dope to see that Sterling K. Brown has starred in both American Fiction and Is God Is, Orion releases that are the directorial debuts for Cord Jefferson and the aforementioned Aleshea Harris, respectively.)
What’s next for Orion Pictures? More of what it’s been doing, from heist comedies and Gareth Evans’ remake of A Colt Is My Passport to the film adaptation of Crying in H Mart. Among those is Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, which stars Mahershala Ali and is written, directed, and produced by Bassam Tariq, who was the first director attached to Ali’s Blade film at Marvel Studios. Details are scarce on the project currently, but with Tariq taking on so much of the making of the film that stars Ali and features John Cho, Giancarlo Esposito, and Trammell Tillman, it feels like it will continue in the vein of Mayo’s Orion Pictures, which is doing what it can to shine a light on those who have been left in the dark.
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