'Lovecraft Country' Featurette: At The Center Of The Horror Is A Story About Family

Lovecraft Country grapples with horrors both cosmic and real in the upcoming HBO series, which blends Lovecraftian horror with the disturbing racism of 1950s America. But the new HBO series from executive producers Misha Green, J.J. Abrams, and Jordan Peele, is more than just about the terrors that lurk around every corner in Jim Crow America. At its core, it's a story about family, according to star Jurnee Smollett in a new Lovecraft Country featurette released ahead of the show's highly anticipated debut. Smollett is joined by Jonathan Majors, Michael Kenneth Williams, and Abbey Lee to speak about their characters and their journeys through Lovecraft Country. Watch the featurette below

Smollett plays "wanderer" Letitia Dandridge, the childhood friend of Majors' Atticus Black, while Williams plays Atticus' missing father Montrose Freeman. But together, when they reunite, they make up a family unit that will be "tested," Williams said in the featurette. "That's what Lovecraft is about," he added.

"At the heart of Lovecraft is this family drama," Smollett said in the featurette.

Featuring an ensemble cast that also includes Courtney B. Vance (American Crime Story) as George Black, Wunmi Mosaku (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) as Ruby Dandridge, Aunjanue Ellis (If Beale Street Could Talk) as Hippolyta Black, Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Christina Braithwhite, and Tony Goldwyn (Scandal) as Samuel Braithwhite. Also starring Jamie Harris (Rise of the Planets of Apes) as Eustace Hunt, Jamie Chung (The Gifted) as Ji-Ah, Jordan Patrick Smith as William, Jamie Neumann as Hillary, Erica Tazel as Dora Freeman, and Mac Brandt as Lancaster, Lovecraft Country has been met with rave reviews and is one of the most highly anticipated new HBO series.

One of those raves comes from /Film's Chris Evangelista, who writes in his review, "Loaded with fantastic, genuinely creepy creature effects, and a shocking amount of gore, Lovecraft Country is a horror-lover's dream come true. And, like the best works of horror, it has something on its mind. It's never preachy about its content because it doesn't need to be. Green and her team have crafted a lived-in world that feels real, even as unreal creatures come flying out of the darkness."

Lovecraft Country debuts its 10-episode season on HBO on August 16, 2020.

Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) as he journeys with his childhood friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett) and his uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) on a road trip from Chicago across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father Montrose (Michael Kenneth Williams). Their search-and-rescue turns into a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and monstrous creatures that could be ripped from an H.P. Lovecraft paperback