The first trailer for The Hate U Give has been released, first debuting at the 2018 BET Awards.

First announced in March 2016, 20th Century Fox subsidiary, Fox 2000, won a bidding war for Angie Thomas’ debut novel and tapped George Tillman Jr. to direct, with Amandla Stenberg attached to star. The novel, which Publisher’s Weekly (PW) says was at the center of a heated auction among 13 publishing houses, including all of the Big Five (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Hachette), was published February 2017. It eventually went to Donna Bray of HarperCollins’ Balzer + Bray in what PW says was a six-figure deal for the young author.

The official synopsis reads: Starr Carter is constantly switching between two worlds: the poor, mostly black neighborhood where she lives and the rich, mostly white prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressures from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what’s right. The Hate U Give is based on the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller by Angie Thomas and stars Amandla Stenberg as Starr, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, K.J. Apa, Lamar Johnson, Issa Rae, Algee Smith and Sabrina Carpenter, with Common and Anthony Mackie.

Thomas, a student in Belhaven University’s creative writing program at the time she came up with the idea for The Hate U Give in 2011, originally wrote it as a short story for her senior-year project, but it quickly expanded into a novel-length work. The title comes from a tattoo worn by Tupac Shakur (the acronym T.H.U.G.).

Tillman has directed a script written by Tina Mabry and Aubrey Wells.

Watch the trailer below: