It features an ensemble cast including Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Daniel Flaherty, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Noah Robbins, Mark Rylance, Alex Sharp, Ben Shenkman, and Jeremy Strong.

Originally planned for a theatrical release by Paramount Pictures, the distribution rights to the film were sold to Netflix due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances (particularly from Baron Cohen), Sorkin's screenplay, the cinematography, the editing and the modern parallels to the 1960s.

In August 1968, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, Lee Weiner, John Froines, and Bobby Seale make preparations to protest at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

John N. Mitchell, the Attorney General, appoints Tom Foran and Richard Schultz as the prosecutors, while all the defendants except Seale are represented by William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass.

Judge Hoffman refuses to let him testify in front of the jury as he had declined to initiate prosecutions after the riots because of evidence that the Chicago Police Department instigated them.

[14] Sorkin tells Variety, "Spielberg saw Molly's Game and was sufficiently pleased to suggest I direct 'Chicago 7' and (Donald) Trump was elected.

[20] In October, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II joined the cast to replace Majors,[21] with Kelvin Harrison Jr.,[22] Keaton,[23] William Hurt, J. C. MacKenzie,[24] Max Adler and Ben Shenkman being added as well.

[34][35] The soundtrack features three original songs performed by British singer Celeste, including "Hear My Voice", which served as the lead single and was released on September 30, 2020.

[31] The Trial of the Chicago 7 was originally scheduled by Paramount Pictures to begin a limited theatrical release on September 25, 2020, before going wide on October 16, 2020.

[41][24] On June 20, 2020, due to the movie theater closures because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, it was reported Netflix was in negotiations to acquire rights to the film.

[46] Upon its digital release, it was the second-most streamed film over its debut weekend, which IndieWire called "higher than usual for a more-serious entry Netflix title.

The website's consensus reads: "An actors' showcase enlivened by its topical fact-based story, The Trial of the Chicago 7 plays squarely – and compellingly – to Aaron Sorkin's strengths"[51] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 based on 49 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

"[53] IndieWire's Eric Kohn gave the film a "B," saying Sorkin "directs his own blunt, energetic screenplay with the convictions of a storyteller fully committed to the tropes at hand," and that Sacha Baron Cohen "steals the show.

"[54] Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised Baron Cohen's and Redmayne's performances, and said: "Sorkin has structured The Trial of the Chicago 7 ingeniously, so that it's never about just one thing.

It's about the theatrical insanity of the war in the courtroom, about how the government would stop at nothing (including flagrant attempts at jury tampering), and about the politics, at once planned and spontaneous, of how the Chicago protests unfolded.

"[55] John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Sorkin has made a movie that's gripping, illuminating and trenchant [...] It's as much about the constitutional American right to protest as it is about justice, which makes it incredibly relevant to where we are today.

[57] The film earned six nominations at the 93rd Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Baron Cohen and Best Original Screenplay for Sorkin.

"[62] Nathan J. Robinson of Current Affairs wrote: "Sorkin takes [...] creative liberties with history that end up distorting it," including in how "Bobby Seale, the Black Panther defendant who was infamously bound and gagged in the courtroom [...] actually managed to repeatedly wriggle out of the physical restraints the government put on him; the film portrays the government as effective in silencing him.

[63] Arionne Nettles of the Chicago Reader gave the film three stars and observed that it also "shows Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, supporting Seale—until police killed him in his home, in his bed, on December 4, 1969," noting, "The onscreen timeline of these events, however, are different.

[66] Kurt Jacobsen of Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture regarded the film as a centrist travesty, with pacifist David Dellinger fictionally punching a court cop, the committed movement attorney William Kunstler behaving like a clueless schoolmaster, Jerry Rubin preposterously falling for an undercover female agent, and the Tom Hayden character ventriloquizing nothing but Sorkin's opinions.

[68] Arionne Nettles of the Chicago Reader, who found Sorkin's portrayal of Fred Hampton in the film made it "hard to not think of Breonna Taylor's similar death earlier this year," wrote, "although this dramatized ending did not actually occur this way, it makes a statement: there's a responsibility to stand up when the world is watching, to remember those who lost their lives, and to say their names.