The eight-episode half-hour series premiered on Starz on May 16, 2021. It received positive reviews and holds a 100% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.[1][2] In August 2021, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on May 26, 2023.[3] In September 2023, the series was canceled after two seasons.[4]
Plot
"Run the World is the story of a group of Black women – vibrant, fiercely loyal best friends – who work, live and play in Harlem as they strive for world domination. At its core, it's an unapologetically female show about enviable friendship and not only surviving – but thriving together."[5]
Cast
Main
Amber Stevens West as Whitney Green, a banker and people-pleasing type-A woman planning her wedding to her fiancé, Ola[6]
Andrea Bordeaux as Ella McFair (season 1), a writer in her early 30s adjusting to her new job at the website Hot Tea Digest, in the wake of an unsuccessful debut book release[1]
Bresha Webb as Renee Ross, a funny and audacious marketing professional in a deteriorating marriage[6]
Corbin Reid as Sondi Hill, a doctoral student in a clandestine relationship with her dissertation advisor, Matthewl[1]
Tosin Morohunfola[5] as Olabisi "Ola" Adeyemo,[2] a Nigerian-American physician and Whitney's fiancé
Stephen Bishop as Matthew Powell, a college professor, single father to his young daughter Amari, and Sondi's boyfriend and thesis advisor[1]
Recurring
Erika Alexander[7] as Barb,[2] Ella's boss at the entertainment website Hot Tea Digest
On October 14, 2019, it was announced that Starz ordered Run the World, the half-hour comedy pilot series created and written by Boomerang writer Leigh Davenport.[6] She described the series as "a love letter to Black women and a love letter to Harlem."[28] Davenport loosely based the series on her time living in Harlem, where she resided for 12 years working in media.[29][30] She wanted the series to depict a group of well-rounded, supportive friends, in part to contrast the "skewed" representations of Black womanhood on popular reality television shows.[29][30] While living in Harlem, she wrote the script for Run the World with no previous screenwriting experience, and continued to revise it over the course of a decade.[30] In 2017 she moved to Los Angeles to pursue writing full-time.[30] Eventually, the series was greenlit by Starz.[30]
Starz ordered the pilot to series on January 30, 2020.[13] On August 27, 2021, Starz renewed the series for a second season and it was announced that Rachelle Williams BenAry joined the series as showrunner, while Bowser remained as co-executive producer.[3]
On September 25, 2023, Starz canceled the series after two seasons.[4]
Casting
The casting of Amber Stevens West and Bresha Webb as series regulars was announced on October 14, 2019.[6] The casting of additional lead cast members Corbin Reid, Stephen Bishop, and Andrea Bordeaux was announced on October 31, 2019.[1]Erika Alexander, who starred in Bowser's series Living Single, was announced as a recurring cast member on November 2, 2020.[7] Additional main cast member Tosin Morohunfola, recurring cast members Nick Sagar and Jay Walker, and guest Tonya Pinkins were announced on December 1, 2020.[5]Rosie O'Donnell was cast as a therapist but was not announced until reviews of the show were released.[31]
On February 4, 2022, Deadline reported that Bordeaux chose to leave the series due to the mandate that the cast and crew be vaccinated against COVID-19. Bordeaux disputed those reports and stated that she was fired for refusing to comply with the vaccine mandate.[32] The role of Ella McFair would not be recast.[32]
The production started filming as of October 29, 2020, on-location in Harlem and other locations around New York City.[33]
Release
An official teaser trailer was released on December 1, 2020, and the official trailer was released April 8, 2021.[5] The series premiered on Starz on May 16, 2021, in the United States and Canada.[5] Season two premiered on May 26, 2023.[34]
Reception
Critical reception
Run the World received critical acclaim. The first season holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on eight critics' reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10.[35]
Caroline Framke of Variety wrote of the series: "In telling stories about relationship dynamics and women staring down their thirties with a thrill of apprehension and determination, “Run the World” is telling timeless stories with its own vibrant spin."[10] Critics noted similarities to the structure of Sex and the City as a show centering a group of fashionable friends in New York, but according to Kellie Carter Jackson of the New York Times, "that's where the similarities end. The essential fifth friend in "Run the World" is Harlem, and whether the four friends of "Run the World" are drinking nutcrackers from bodegas, shopping at the Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Market for African prints or accepting a plate at a street barbecue, they exude the ease of belonging to a Black community."[28] Inkoo Kang of The Hollywood Reporter described the show as "Fizzy yet substantial, Run the World offers exactly the feeling you'd want while catching up with an old friend over cocktails: It's giddy, gossipy and gladdening."[31] Aramide Tinibu of The A.V. Club rated the show a B+ and wrote positively of the relationships between the women: "They lean into one another for a warm embrace or sometimes even a quippy admonishment...There's a familiarity and a tenderness that runs through their relationships...they voice their realistic and relevant opinions about each other's lives—welcomed or otherwise—out of a desire to see each other thrive."[36]
