Will Netflix’s ‘The Truth About Jussie Smollett’ Answer Lingering Questions From the Case?
One of Hollywood’s biggest scandals in recent years is the topic of Netflix’s latest original documentary.
Deadline reported on Tuesday, July 22, that the streaming service has ordered the 90-minute documentary The Truth About Jussie Smollett?, which will examine actor Jussie Smollett‘s hate crime hoax scandal. The film will feature a new interview with Smollett, 6 years after the drama began to unfold.
Netflix describes the documentary as a “shocking true story of an allegedly fake story that some now say might just be a true story,” per Deadline. “With first-hand interviews from those at the helm, including investigating police, lawyers, journalists, and Jussie himself, this compelling documentary invites the audience to decide for themselves who is telling the truth about Jussie Smollett?”
Gagan Rehill, who previously directed Netflix’s Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal docuseries, serves as the film’s director, while Raw’s Tom Sheahan and Tim Wardle serve as executive producers.
“I’m very excited to be sharing this film with Netflix viewers. This story is a thrilling ride, and we were lucky enough to have access to the key players,” Rehill said in a statement. “I wanted this documentary to balance their competing narratives and to also use their compelling, colorful testimonies to thread the light and shade of the story through the film.”
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He continued, “But much more than that, I wanted this film to speak to the particular moment of rapid cultural change when this takes place in 2019; when, as a society, we were becoming more combative, more polarized, more divergent over our shared reality — when we began to lack a common singular Truth.”
Smollett’s legal drama began back in January 2019 when he claimed he was the victim of a hate crime in Chicago. At the time, the Empire actor alleged he was attacked by two individuals who called him racist and homophobic slurs, placed a noose around his neck, and poured a chemical substance on him.
The following month, Smollett was charged with felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report after allegedly staging the attacks against himself. Though the charges were later dropped, new charges were filed against Smollett in 2020, and he was convicted on five counts of disorderly conduct in 2021. He was sentenced to 150 days in jail and 30 months of probation, but only spent six days behind bars before being released on bond pending appeal.
Smollett’s convictions were overturned and dismissed by the Supreme Court of Illinois in November 2024 after it was determined that the special prosecutor’s attempt to retry the case violated Smollett’s rights.
Smollett reached a settlement with the city of Chicago back in May, agreeing to pay $50,000 in charity to settle the city’s civil lawsuit seeking restitution for the cost of the hate crime investigation.
“Though I was exonerated by the Illinois Supreme Court in a unanimous decision and the civil case will now be dismissed, I’m aware that it will not change everyone’s mind about me or the attack I experienced,” Smollett wrote in a lengthy May 23 Instagram statement. “However, despite arduous and expensive attempts to punish me, I am innocent in the eyes of God and our criminal justice system.
He continued, “What I have to do now is move forward. I will continue creating my art, fighting passionately for causes I hold dear, and defending my integrity and family name with the truth.”
The Truth About Jussie Smollett?, Documentary Premiere, Friday, August 22, Netflix
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