Drama Utopia premieres on Amazon Prime Sept. 25. John Cusack is in the cast. The thriller series is about a group of young fans of a comic that discover that the conspiracy behind the comic is in fact real.
“The comic foretells the demise of humanity and the world as we know it,” said Amazon, “thrusting this group of underdogs to embark on a high-stakes twisted adventure to use what they uncover to save themselves, each other and ultimately humanity.”
There are 10 episodes.
Novelist Gillian Flynn, whose books include Gone Girl and Sharp Objects, is executive producer and showrunner. Rainn Wilson and Sasha Lane are also in the cast.
The series is inspired by the British series Utopia, on the air in 2013-2014. Cusack plays pharmaceutical exec Dr. Kevin Christie, a character that does not appear in the English drama.
Flynn has described Utopia as “The Goonies meets Marathon Man.”
Viewers may find Utopia timely here in 2020. “The show does feature a panic-inducing viral outbreak,” executive producer Jessica Rhoades said. “But it’s more about how different groups of people band together to save the world.”
Rhoades said Flynn’s scripts grabbed her immediately. “They surprised me episode to episode,” said Rhoades, who had worked with Flynn on HBO’s Sharp Objects series. “Nothing ever was what I thought it was.”
Asked about the viewer’s takeaway from Utopia, Rhoades said, “That nerds and science are real and good and probably the key to our future.”
