'Snowpiercer' Teaser: The Planet Freezes In Beautiful Opening Animated Sequence

While most may be familiar with the Bong Joon-Ho film that earned critical acclaim and helped spread the Korean auteur's name in the States, many probably weren't aware that Snowpiercer is based on the 1982 French graphic novel Le Transperceneige. Bong's film took liberties with the graphic novel upon which it was based, but the upcoming dystopian sci-fi series starring Daveed Diggs and Jennifer Connolly will hew a little closer to it. Quite literally, as the new animated Snowpiercer teaser shows us. The minute-long teaser shows the opening of the first episode, illustrated in a style inspired by the art of the graphic novel. Watch the Snowpiercer teaser below.

With Snowpiercer back on the rails at TNT (following a short detour to TBS), the network has released a new teaser following the dystopian sci-fi series' New York Comic-Con panel. The teaser is an animated sequence narrated by Diggs as Layton Well, which shows the planet freezing as the last vestiges of humanity board the "arc," a high-tech train powered by a perpetual-motion engine that circles the globe. But the calm boarding process by the elite who have managed to score tickets is interrupted when a mob of desperate survivors storm the gate and run toward the tail end of the train under a barrage of bullets from soldiers.

The teaser is animated in a beautifully fluid, surreal style in homage to the graphic novel created by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette. It's in line with the show's creative team confirmation that the show will be inspired by both Bong's 2013 movie and the trilogy of graphic novels.

Graeme Manson is the showrunner for Snowpiercer, which is produced by Tomorrow Studios (a joint venture between Marty Adelstein and ITV Studios), along with CJ Entertainment, who produced the original film. The series has had a rocky path to premiere, with series developer and original showrunner Josh Friedman exiting the project as Snowpiercer moved from TNT to TBS, back to TNT. But a second season has already been greenlit ahead of the first season's premiere on TNT in Spring 2020.

Here is the synopsis for Snowpiercer:

Set more than seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland Snowpiercer centers on the remnants of humanity, who inhabit a 1001 car, perpetually-moving train that circles the globe. Class warfare, social injustice and the politics of survival play out in this riveting television adaptation based on the acclaimed movie and graphic novel series of the same name.