The biopic starring Kingsley Ben-Adir hits theaters on January 12
Peace is hard to come by for Bob Marley in the latest trailer for Bob Marley: One Love. “There’s a war going on,” the reggae icon, portrayed in the film by Kingsley Ben-Adir, acknowledges. “How can I bring peace? I can’t even get peace for myself.” Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green and arriving in theaters on Jan. 12, One Love examines the push and pull of this battle that largely defined the musician’s life.
In the preview, one of the greatest threats to his peace is also a threat to his life. It captures a scene from December 1976, when a crew of men attempted to assassinate Marley inside his home with his wife and children. People close to the musician had warned that his unifying message could place a target on his back, but the look of shock on his face when the round began blasting through his house, striking those around him, suggests that it didn’t settle in until that moment.
Marley is riding around in his car with two of his sons when a radio broadcaster begins recounting the events of the near-fatal shooting. Before his young boys can absorb much of the information, he switches the radio off. “Don’t worry about that,” he tells them. “Don’t worry about a thing, cause every little thing gonna be alright.”
Earlier this year, when the first trailer for Bob Marley: One Love was released, Marley’s son Ziggy Marley shared a post on social media about the story of his father being told through this format. “Nothing happens before it’s time, and now is the time for the story of our father Bob Marley to be represented in a biopic theatrical release coming in 2024,” he wrote on Instagram. “You’ve heard the music, and you think you know the man, but do you really understand what he went through and what moments shaped him into the person he became.”
