BO has a new killer genre show on the horizon and now it’s got its very first trailer. The long-coming Lovecraft Country greenlit from executive producers Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams over two years ago finally has some footage to show of its Matt Ruff adaptation.
The meshing of 1950s Jim Crow oppression and cosmic spooky horror will strike a Watchmen-like tone thanks to showrunner Misha Green — and this first trailer doesn’t skimp on the monsters.
The first look sees stars Abbey Lee, Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollet-Bell, Courtney B. Vance, and Michael K. Williams in a world where real-world and otherworldly horrors clash (or stem from one another). Atticus Freeman (Majors), his friend Letitia (Smollett-Bell), and his Uncle George (Vance) are going to a very spooky part of the country during a time when any black person touring America was tempting fate.
OK, what in the world was that? That place certainly LOOKS dangerous, as the trailer’s voiceover explains. Daniel Sackheim and Yann Demange direct the first few episodes of the show, which will give fans this nice blend of genres in the near future.
The counting in the trailer certainly screams “Watchmen!” while the lead’s promise that he hasn’t even gotten to the strange part teases a heaping helping of twists. Awesome.
Lovecraft Country foregrounds a group of savvy genre-fiction fans who also happen to be black and allows them to grapple with Lovecraft’s racism as an allegory for American racism itself. But it also doesn’t stint on scenes of actual racism; the novel’s bleakest horror comes not from Lovecraft’s most famous monster, Cthulhu, but from the sheer terror of very real American horrors, like police brutality, Jim Crow laws, and sunset towns.
Lovecraft Country will hit HBO this August.
