How The Trial of the Chicago 7 Cast Compare to Their Real-Life Counterparts

The highly versatile Sacha Baron Cohen portrays Abbie Hoffman, one of the trial defendants and the cofounder of the Youth International Party (also known as the "Yippies"). He was known for staging tongue-in-cheek stunts to make a statement and advance his causes.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, fresh off his Emmy win for Watchmen, plays Black Panther Party cofounder Bobby Seale. He was the sole Black defendant in the trial, and after repeatedly interrupting the judge to demand his own representation, the judge ordered him to be bound and gagged and tried separately. (That's how the Chicago 8 became the Chicago 7.)

Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne takes on the part of Tom Hayden, another one of the trial's defendants. Hayden was an activist and writer, known for cofounding the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). (And yes, he's also known for his marriage to Jane Fonda.)

Succession's Jeremy Strong plays Jerry Rubin, the other cofounder of the Yippies, and yet another Chicago 7 defendant. Unlike Abbie Hoffman though, in the decades after the trial, he would transform his life into that of a successful entrepreneur on Wall Street. ("I know that I can be more effective today wearing a suit and tie and working on Wall Street than I can be dancing outside the walls of power," he once explained, per the New York Times.)

Hollywood mainstay Joseph Gordon-Levitt appears as Richard Schultz, the Nixon Justice Department's prosecutor in the case.

Veteran actor Frank Langella takes on the role of Federal District Judge Julius Hoffman, who infamously presided over the trial of the Chicago 7 with a clear sympathy for the prosecution. Though five of the defendants were found guilty, none of them ultimately faced jail time, after an appeals judge overturned the convictions, decrying Hoffman's "deprecatory and often antagonistic attitude toward the defense."

British actor Mark Rylance (Dunkirk, The BFG) plays William Kunstler, the attorney who represented all of the defendants but Seale in the trial. Kunstler was well-known for his leftist politics and defending outcasts in court.

Up-and-coming actor Alex Sharp portrays Rennie Davis, another one of the Chicago 7, and the national director of SDS's community organizing programs. Recently, Davis told the Guardian of this new movie, "Coming out at this time is just really perfection. There are some things that I wouldn’t agree with how Sorkin has characterized certain figures in the trial, myself included. But the impact of the movie is there and I certainly endorse and support it."