The world of H.P. Lovecraft collides with the Jim Crow South in Lovecraft Country, a new HBO series from executive producers Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams and showrunner Misha Green. Based on the novel by Matt Ruff, the story focuses on a road trip through 1950s America, where threats of racism and the supernatural loom large. Watch the Lovecraft Country trailer below.
Lovecraft Country Trailer
In Lovecraft Country, Atticus Black and "his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father. What follows is a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from an H.P. Lovecraft paperback."
The show features Michael Kenneth Williams, Courtney B. Vance, Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Wunmi Mosaku, Aunjanue Ellis, Jamie Harris,Abbey Lee, Jamie Chung, and Jordan Patrick Smith. HBO has a very detailed description of the characters, and what they're all up to:
Atticus (Majors) is a Korean war vet who always has a pulp novel in his back pocket, and wears his heart on his sleeve despite the daily injustice of living in Jim Crow America. His father, Montrose (Williams), however is hard headed and secretive, and always believed you can't live in a fantasy world — making him less-than-thrilled about his son's love for pulp novels.
It's Atticus' uncle (Vance) who's always been more like a father to him. Warm, funny, and well read, he was the first to introduce Atticus to the wonderful and strange world of pulp novels. As the publisher of the "Safe Negro Travel Guide" he's been on enough adventures to understand there's no place like home.
Letitia "Leti" Lewis (Smollett-Bell) hustled her way across the country as an artist protesting for civil rights and now finds herself back home to plant some roots. Her half-sister Ruby (Mosaku) is also a hustler, but her hustles haven't paid off. Her family ties are tested when she's presented with an offer she can't refuse. Hippolyta Freeman (Ellis) is a star-gazer who's been a housewife most of her life, but has dreams of getting into some adventures of her own. Her itch for adventure will eventually, literally and figuratively, take her to the stars and beyond.
Eustice Hunt (Harris), is a sundown county sheriff with a NAACP complaint file a mile long, and a marine tattoo on the back of his neck so the enemy has something to aim at, gets more than he bargained for when he crosses paths with Atticus; Ji-Ah (Chung) is a seemingly naive nursing student who is thrust into active service when war breaks out, and a rash of soldier disappearances suggests she is more than what she seems.
Christina Braithwhite (Lee) is the only daughter of the leader of a secret order calling themselves the "Sons of Adam." She's gone to great lengths to earn her father's respect, but to no avail. She's going to pave her own path to power, and use Atticus and his family to do it. Willam (Smith) is Christina's henchman, lover, bodyguard, spy, or whatever else she may need him to be. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed, he's the "perfect specimen" for the Aryan race.
Matt Ruff's book is fantastic, and will no doubt make for a must-see show. The premise alone should be enough to draw people in when the show premieres this August.
