Twenty years after its original television debut on Logo, the groundbreaking series Noah’s Arc is back with a brand-new movie — and it feels more relevant than ever.
Created by Patrik-Ian Polk, the iconic story follows Noah (Darryl Stephens), Alex (Rodney Chester), Ricky (Christian Vincent), and Chance (Doug Spearman), four Black men living and loving in Los Angeles — but they aren’t so young and carefree anymore. Noah’s Arc: The Movie sees the men juggling their elevated careers with fatherhood, mortality, grief, and the ever-changing political climate.
“It’s interesting to be revisiting Noah’s Arc during this current administration,” star Darryl Stephens says. “LGBTQ+ folks are fraught with lots of challenges at the moment. What Noah’s Arc did in 2005, I hope it is able to do again in 2025.”
The legacy of Noah’s Arc today is significant. It’s a beloved and foundational text for many Black LGBTQ+ people in the U.S., who rarely see themselves and their community represented on TV with so much compassion, joy, and laughter. For many, it was a pivotal chapter in their own coming-out stories.
“People have told me that they used to hide in the closet with the TV and watch the show, or they would sit with the remote in their hand on the last channel buttons so if anyone walked in, they could very quickly click away,” Polk says.
Its return speaks to Noah’s vital place (and need) in culture. “We’ve never lost faith, and certainly the fans have never forgotten the show,” Polk adds. “That’s been the most amazing thing, to see our original fans are still around and they love the show, but then younger people just continue to discover it.”
In Noah’s Arc: The Movie, Stephens reprises his role as Noah, and Rodney Chester, Christian Vincent, Doug Spearman, Jensen Atwood, and Wilson Cruz all return to their roles. And reality TV stars Ts Madison and Kennedy Davenport join the cast alongside sitcom royalty Jasmine Guy (A Different World) and T.C. Carson (Living Single).
Rodney Chester dons drag in 'Noah’s Arc: The Movie.'Matt Miller/Paramount+
Polk was pinching himself “to have these icons of my childhood in the movie” and has long felt an affinity for Carson’s “queer-coded” Living Single character, Kyle.
“I know he had his whole relationship with Max, but it felt familiar to me, like kin to me,” Polk says. “I always appreciated the character. Getting to know the actor outside of Living Single, he’s just so amazingly talented.”
And Stephens says he and costar Atwood, who plays Noah’s husband, Wade, “could not contain” themselves while working with Guy. “A Different World was biblical for me,” he says.
In the film, Noah and Wade struggle to balance their careers with fast-approaching fatherhood (they’re expecting twins), especially when an opportunity to work with the world’s biggest pop star comes into the picture. And Alex and Trey’s relationship with their teenage daughter, who is transgender, isn’t as easygoing as expected.
“You might assume that the relationship between a trans teen and her gay dads would be harmonious, but it’s just as turbulent as every other family,” reflects Polk. “You think she would love having a fabulous drag diva parent, and she completely hates it. She completely rebels against it. She thinks drag is insulting to her trans identity. I just think it’s hilarious how it shows how universal parenthood is no matter who the child is, no matter who the parents are, what their sexuality or gender.”
The film also incorporates perhaps the most prominent Black gay story of 2020s pop culture. When Beyoncé released her album Renaissance in 2022, she shared with the world the story of her Uncle Johnny, who introduced her to house and disco music and even worked on some of her costumes. He died of an AIDS-related illness in 1998, just when her career with girl group Destiny’s Child took off.
There are many Uncle Johnnys — men who died of AIDS-related complications, whose stories were forgotten or even erased. Beyoncé allowed others to honor and celebrate their legacy through music and community. And it’s tender to watch Noah’s Arc interact with the story, with Polk hoping that Beyoncé and her mother, Tina Knowles, see its “reverential intent.”
“We’ve never seen that story told,” says Polk. “We’ve seen white stories from A to Z, everything from The Normal Heart, An Early Frost, there’s just a shit ton of theater, film, TV, every which way. Arguably, it affected our community more than anybody. It’s almost a travesty that we have not seen it portrayed. For me, someone who lost an uncle to AIDS, I had my own Uncle Johnny. I was just so moved by the whole story.”
As Stephens points out, Noah’s Arc “was talking about HIV and AIDS and the way it was affecting us disproportionately back in the day. We were not pulling any punches around that conversation in 2005,” he says. “Even though Alex is no longer running the Black AIDS Institute and he’s now running a drag bar, it felt like we really needed to continue talking about the legacy or the impact that that has had on us as a culture.”
These stories — our stories — feel more important to tell now more than ever, when the current administration is actively trying to erase LGBTQ+ identities and cut lifesaving funding to HIV services.
“The political landscape has shifted for the worse,” says Stephens. “We’re standing on the shoulders of generations before us, and we hope that we are helping to teach the generations after us how to support each other and love each other through all of the shit we [are] about to go through, because it’s happening again.” He hopes the film can “remind people of the joy and importance of community and friendship. Obviously, it’s all over-the-top and camp and silly as hell, but there’s also heart to it. I hope people appreciate it in this era of heartlessness.”
Meanwhile, Stephens is just so proud “to be in something that’s so Black and so gay that people can’t stand it.”
Perhaps this isn’t the end? The movie ends with a question mark and plenty of material to drive the story forward. Fans — Polk and Stephens included — are keeping their fingers crossed for more.
Noah’s Arc: The Movie premieres June 20 on Paramount+.
This article is part of Out's July/Aug 2025 issue, which hits newsstands July 1. Support queer media and subscribe — or download the issue through Apple News, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader starting June 19.
