Judas and the Black Messiah trailer follows the rise and fall of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton

Daniel Kaluuya puts in a powerful performance that could put him among the Oscar contenders this award season, as seen in the new trailer for Judas and the Black Messiah.

Kaluuya (Get Out) portrays iconic Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, who was betrayed by FBI informant William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield), who infiltrated the group as part of a plea deal.

While rising to power in the Black Panther Party and seen as a threat to the US government, he is also gearing up to start a family with his pregnant fiancé Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback).

The trailer opens with Deborah saying to Fred, “I want to share something with you,” as she begins reciting a poem to Fred.

“Like the masses, I was impressed when I first saw what you all are,” she begins, as we see footage of Hampton arriving at an event where he is giving a powerful speech.

When I heard that speech, I knew we would make noise. I thought it was just going to be on the street, ”she continues.

We also hear FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) in front of a packed room of agents proclaim that the Black Panthers’ are the greatest threat to our national security.

“Our counterintelligence program is to prevent the rise of a Black Messiah,” adds Hoover, as FBI agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) looks on in the crowd.

Mitchell tells O’Neal in an interrogation room that he will wait eighteen months for the stolen car plus five years because he is posing as a federal officer, “or you can go home.”

O’Neal becomes Mitchell’s eyes and ears within the Black Panther troupe, as he’s been told, “getting close to Hampton.”

Hampton is seen delivering another exciting address where he reveals that the Black Panther is, “a rainbow coalition of oppressed siblings of every color,” as both black and white people respond to his message.

Hampton is heard saying, “America is on fire now, and until that fire is out, nothing else means anything like that. Imagine what we can achieve together. We can heal this whole town. ‘

O’Neal is seen again with Mitchell in an interrogation room, where O’Neal has made it clear, “These are not terrorists.”

One of Hampton’s closest associates then tells him, “We have a rat,” while O’Neal is concerned that he has been exposed, although Mitchell says, “No one knows your identity.”

Johnson continues her poem amid a firefight with Chicago police, adding poignantly, “We scream and we scream and we live by this national anthem / But it’s power for the people who are really worth the ransom.”

Hampton responds to the poem by telling Johnson, “When I dedicate my life to the people, I dedicate my life,” apparently knowing his fate before it happened.

Johnson argues that he can say, “go out and talk about dying a revolutionary death, because no other person is growing in your body.”

The trailer ends with Hampton telling O’Neal, “Wherever people are, there’s power.”

Hampton was only 21 years old when he was murdered in a raid on his Chicago apartment in December 1969, just 25 days before his son Fred Jr. was born.

Shaka King (Newlyweds, High Maintenance) directs based on a script he wrote with Will Berson (Scrubs).

Warner Bros. will release Judas and the Black Messiah simultaneously in theaters and on the HBO Max streaming service on Feb. 12.