J.J. Abrams HBO Series 'Demimonde' Finds Showrunners
Demimonde, a show that was first announced all the way back in 2018, is still happening at HBO. And while we continue to know very little about the J.J. Abrams project, we now know who will be running the show. The Handmaid's Tale executive producer Kira Snyder, and Rand Ravich and Far Shariat, who both worked on the NBC series Life, will all serve as co-showrunners.
Just what is Demimonde? The HBO series is set to be produced and written by J.J. Abrams, and is being billed as an "epic and intimate sci-fi fantasy drama." According to Variety, it's tapped Kira Snyder, Rand Ravich, and Far Shariat as its showrunners. The current vague synopsis being used for the show states that it "deals with a world's battle against a monstrous, oppressive force, exploring the lengths a family will go to find their missing child."
Back in 2018, when word of this series first broke, Demimonde was said to focus on "a family who gets into a car crash. The mother, who just so happens to be a scientist, ends up in a coma, leaving her daughter to start digging through some old experiments in the basement." All that digging is what leads to the whole "battle against a monstrous, oppressive force" thing.
Abrams having his name on a show is still a big deal, but it's not quite that big a deal. He's a producer who has his hand in a lot of things. That said, the fact that Abrams is also writing Demimonde is worth noting, as he hasn't done any TV writing in some time. The constantly busy Abrams has a big overall deal with HBO, which includes Overlook, a spin-off of The Shining; a Justice League Dark series; and the '70s crime series Duster. Abrams is also a producer on HBO's Westworld and the upcoming series Lovecraft Country.
I tend to like the work Abrams produces, and while I pretty much loathed his recent The Rise of Skywalker, I still remain interested in his new projects. While the details around Demimonde remain a bit too mystery-boxy for my liking – Abrams gonna Abrams, after all – I'm curious to see how this all shakes out. As for the title, "demimonde" refers to "the class of women considered to be of doubtful morality and social standing" and "a group of people considered to be on the fringes of respectable society." Make of that what you will.