The first thing you hear in the new Children of Blood and Bone trailer might be the most interesting part. Tems has a brand new song in there called African Love Story, and it’s carrying a lot of the emotional weight behind all the magic and swordplay.
The Nigerian singer and songwriter isn’t new to this kind of assignment. She co-wrote Lift Me Up, Rihanna’s ballad for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. So pairing her voice with another big screen story rooted in African identity feels like a natural fit.
Her track record in music speaks for itself too. Tems won a Grammy for her part in Future’s Wait for U alongside Drake, then took home Best African Music Performance for Love Me JeJe, a cut from her 2024 debut album Born in the Wild.
On the film side, this is the long awaited adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s 2018 novel, the first book in her Legacy of Orisha series. It’s set in the kingdom of Orsha, where the ruthless King Saran has wiped out magic entirely. That purge also costs a young woman named Zelie her mother.
Zelie sets out with her brother to bring magic back and save her people. Things get complicated when they end up joining forces with the king’s own son and daughter. Together they take on Saran’s brutal rule, and the trailer frames the fight as being about identity, family and hope as much as spells.
Gina Prince-Bythewood is directing, which should get a lot of people’s attention. She’s the filmmaker behind The Woman King and The Old Guard, so she knows her way around large scale action with real heart underneath it.
The cast list is stacked. Thuso Mbedu, Damson Idris, Amandla Stenberg and Tosin Cole lead the ensemble, with Cynthia Erivo, Lashana Lynch, Zackary Momoh and Nollywood veteran Richard Mofe-Damijo also on board.
Then come the heavyweights. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Regina King, Idris Elba and Viola Davis round out a lineup that reads like an awards season shortlist.
For Afrobeats fans, the bigger story is what this placement represents. A Lagos artist scoring a key moment in a Hollywood fantasy trailer shows how far the genre’s reach has stretched beyond streaming charts and into mainstream cinema marketing.
For fans of the book, the music adds a layer the novel could only hint at. Adeyemi built her world from West African mythology and culture, and hearing a Nigerian voice in the trailer makes that grounding feel audible for the first time.
Paramount Pictures is releasing the film in cinemas across India on January 15, 2027. There’s no word yet on a full soundtrack or a standalone release date for African Love Story, so for now the trailer is the only place to hear it.
