‘Fight Night’ showrunner felt obligated to tell a wild, true story

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the eighth and final episode of Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, “Round Eight: Testify.”

When Shaye Ogbonna read the script Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heisthe immediately felt “an obligation” to tell the true story.

Based on the iHeart podcast, the limited series follows Gordon “Chicken Man” Williams (Kevin Hart), an enterprising hustler who talks his way into hosting an exclusive after-party for the rich and influential in honor of Muhammad Ali’s historic comeback fight against Jerry Steengraven in Atlanta on October 26, 1970. Unbeknownst to Chicken Man, a group of robbers also set their sights on the soiree, descending with shotguns to rob the attendees of their belongings.

What the attackers didn’t know, however, is that they were also targeting powerful members of “the damn black mafia,” including Samuel L. Jackson’s formidable Frank Moten. With the gangsters convinced that he and his right-hand man Vivian (Taraji P. Henson) masterminded the heist, Chicken Man reluctantly teams up with his adversary J.D. Hudson (Don Cheadle), one of the first black detectives of the desegregated Atlanta police force, in a race against time to clear his name.

It is revealed that Terrence Howard’s Richard “Cadillac Richie” Wheeler, who is determined to stage a coup against Moten, is the mastermind.

Even more remarkable, it is a story rooted in historical significance. Ali’s big fight became a cultural milestone for Atlanta and cemented the city’s rise as the “Black Mecca.” And for the Atlanta native Ogbonna, it’s deeply personal. “The funny thing for me was finding my own connections to the real events,” says the creator-showrunner-writer Entertainment weekly. “I felt an obligation to tell this story and inform people that I am a product of this.” He talks about those connections and more below.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I’m curious about the research outside of the podcast, and more specifically, whether you were able to meet people who were actually there. I know Samuel L. Jackson was in Atlanta when this happened and may have known some of the people.

SHAYE OGBONNA: I couldn’t track down the people who were there, but I’m from Atlanta and the community where this took place. So the funny thing for me was that I found my own personal connections to the real events. The reason I really had to do this, besides it just being an amazing opportunity, was because I felt an obligation to tell this story and inform people that I am a product of this. I started finding personal connections when I went home, talking to my aunts, uncles, mother, the people a generation above me, they all remember it. They all came of age around the time it happened. These types of localized African American and POC stories are usually told orally. You won’t find them in books. You heard it from someone who told it to someone who told it to someone, and that’s how this story came about.

What insights were you able to gain from this?

It confirmed things I was already feeling in an approach I was already taking, which was to humanize everyone on this show. The one thing I felt the podcast didn’t really get a chance to explore was the robbers. The robbers are just names. And so we also had to take a lot more creative freedom through research, because a lot of these people were just names. A lot of these people didn’t make it, and there’s not much of a story to it. I felt it was important to tell the story of the community, even from their perspective. I found more personal, actual connections, not only with the people involved, but also with the attackers. The one thing that was always important for me to emphasize was that everyone involved was a member of the community, including the robbers. It was important to me to add meat to that bone and make those characters feel layered, nuanced and complex.

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Don and Kevin have such great chemistry. How much of their banter was improvised?

It was a mix. For the most part, they stuck to the script, but there are definitely moments. It’s about writing according to their voice. And the thing about Don and Kevin: they already had great chemistry before we started this. They already went viral based on their chemistry. I don’t know if you remember that interview they did on (Hart’s talk show) Heart to heartbut Kevin low-key took a shot at Don’s age and it went viral. They already have that bond, so it’s a buddy cop movie waiting to happen. One scene I know they really had fun with is one of my favorite scenes in episode four, where they visit the mother’s house to try to interview her daughter, who was a witness to the robbery. I’ve seen the dailies and I tell you, I would watch them over and over again. Kevin is simply a master of timing. It’s just a chemistry masterclass, so that’s a scene where they improve a little bit.

We need to talk about the wigs of the ’70s. I’m obsessed with Terrence’s wig. What was the wig budget? How many wigs were made for this?

I don’t know the wig budget, but I know the wig budget was significant enough. It actually could have affected our start time as the presentation of each historical piece is so important. Especially clothes, wigs, makeup, that’s when people call BS. If I could find any inconsistencies, I would be taken off the show, so it was very important to us. Our hair and makeup team, led by Lawrence and Mona, really knocked it out of the park. As for our top cast, everyone had specific wigs that were tailor-made for their heads, but also tailored to their personalities. What I love about our cast is that they work so together. Don and Sam, and of course Terrence and Taraji, were involved in those choices. That was part of building their characters. Terrence, man, he’s an artist, and that wig was part of the character. He took it and ran with it, and I love that.

Speaking of Terrence, his character turns out to be the mastermind. Three men were charged, but none with this specific name. Was there a real Cadillac Richie?

There’s a real Cadillac Richie. We took some creative liberties by changing who he is and his background, but there was a real Cadillac Richie. I don’t think anything has ever been said about it. I haven’t looked at the research in a while. All I do know is that Frank Moten and JD believed it was Cadillac Richie. The real Cadillac Richie didn’t make it in the end. If I remember correctly, I believe he was killed in a gang case, maybe even related to the robbery. Cadillac Richie was more of an independent, stubborn kid. He actually looked more like Willie Black. Cadillac Richie came to the fight. He did not go with Frank and left early to create an alibi. So we just took that and just added more meat to that bone. When we got Terrence Howard, it really gave us an opportunity. We made Richie a bigger gangster and paired him with Frank, which was great because it made it a more complicated, satisfying reveal.

You call the series a love letter to Atlanta. What do you hope people get out of this history lesson?

I want people to be entertained, number one. And then number two, I was talking earlier about these POC stories that don’t get a chance to be spread to the mainstream. This is one of those American shows from an African-American perspective, told in a mainstream genre way. We have so many of these American stories that can be told from these perspectives of people who tend to be put on the margins. So I hope people see this and see the blueprint of these types of stories and these types of characters. One thing that was very important to me is that almost every character has their own business. They all strive for the American dream. They are not a stereotype. Even if they do something wrong, there is something interesting behind it. I just want people to just see this world, see these characters, and really connect and see the possibilities of what can be done.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

All episodes of Fight night streaming now on Peacock.