Lovecraft Country is a big-budget, epic genre adventure that wouldn’t have been possible without movies like Get Out and TV series such as Lost, according to showrunner Misha Green.
Speaking at HBO’s panel session at the virtual TCA press tour, Green said, “I think this would have been incredibly hard to get on screen if Get Out hadn’t come out. I think that paved the way for people to really open up to the idea of seeing more black people in genre spaces.”
She added that ABC’s sci-fi drama, exec produced by Lovecraft Country exec producer J.J. Abrams, also paved the way. “It’s an epic journey that wouldn’t have been possible if we weren’t making TV at the level that started with Lost and that pilot.”
Lovecraft Country is exec produced by Get Out’s Jordan Peele, who produces through his Monkeypaw Productions, and Abrams, who produces via Bad Robot. Green and Bad Robot TV boss Ben Stephenson also exec produce the series, which is produced in in association with Warner Bros Television.
Based on Matt Ruff’s novel, the 10-episode series follows Atticus Freeman, played by Jonathan Majors, as he journeys with his childhood friend Letitia, played by Jurnee Smollett, and his uncle George, played by Courtney B. Vance, on a road trip from Chicago across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father Montrose, played by 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.
Green, who created historical drama Underground, said that the HBO drama incorporates adventure, horror and sci-fi with other influences including The Shining and the Amityville horror franchise. “Everything in the genre space is a huge influence and genre fans will definitely see those Easter eggs and influences throughout,” she added.
The series, which launches August 16, included 162 sets, and Green said that one episode of Lovecraft Country cost the same to make as five episodes of WGN’s Underground.