Adrien Brody and Tessa Thompson Tease Their Broadway Debuts in Haunting New Trailer for Broadway’s The Fear of 13 (Exclusive)

Adrien Brody and Tessa Thompson come face to face behind prison glass in the first trailer for their upcoming Broadway drama The Fear of 13.

PEOPLE has the exclusive premiere of teaser for the powerful new drama, which tells the real-life journey of Nick Yarris, a man who spent more than two decades on death row before being exonerated by DNA evidence.

Brody plays Yarris and Thompson, Jackie, a volunteer who visits the prisoner behind bards to hear his story.

The play follows the pair through a series of conversations as Yarris reflects on his life, wrongful conviction and the years he spent awaiting execution, according to an official release. As their conversations deepen, the line between witness and participant begins to blur “forcing both to confront what justice demands, what belief requires, and the perilous distance between true freedom and the illusion of self-determination.”

“I’ve never been in love before, but I know what this is,” Brody says in the video.

Yarris was wrongly convicted in Pennsylvania in 1982 for a rape and murder he did not commit. He spent 22 years on death row before DNA testing proved his innocence. He was released in 2004.

“They just needed someone to blame,” Brody adds in the trailer. “I lived in silence for more than two years. Now even the truth sounds like a lie.”

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The trailer ends with a powerful statement from Brody’s character: “I forgive you for killing me.”

Playwright Lindsey Ferrentino — who made her Broadway debut earlier this season with the book to The Queen of Versailles — adapted the story from Yarris’ own first-person account, which has been told in multiple formats over the years including his bestselling memoir, Seven Days to Live, and director David Sington’s critically acclaimed 2015 documentary, also titled The Fear of 13.

The Fear of 13 begins previews March 19 at the James Earl Jones Theatre, with opening night on April 15. The production, directed by Tony Award winner David Cromer, will run for 16 weeks.

The Broadway production will also include a partnership with the Innocence Project, the organization dedicated to freeing the wrongfully convicted and reforming the criminal justice system (and the same group that helped secure Yarris’ exoneration).

Christina Swarns, one of Yarris’ former attorneys, now serves as executive director of the not-for-profit organization. It has helped to free or exonerate more than 250 people who, collectively, spent over 4,000 years behind bars, and contributed to the passage of more than 250 transformative state and federal reforms.

This marks both Brody and Thompson’s Broadway debuts.

Brody, known for his Oscar-winning roles on screen in The Pianist and The Brutalist, will portray Yarris. The actor, 52, previously played the role in during a 2024 production of The Fear of 13 directed by Justin Martin at London’s Donmar Warehouse.

Thompson — who can be seen on screen currently in Hedda and the Netflix series His & Hers — is new to the play. The Golden Globe-nominated actress, 42, is known to audiences in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for her role as Valkyrie in the Thor films.

Tickets for The Fear of 13 are on sale now.