After years of delays, TNT’s TV series adaptation of “Snowpiercer” is finally premiering later this month, and ahead of the show’s launch comes the official trailer which demonstrates beyond any doubt that yes, it’s definitely a TV series version of the acclaimed film directed by Bong Joon Ho.
Not that we’re complaining. Based on Bong’s 2014 film adaptation of the critically acclaimed graphic novel series “Le Transperceneige” by Jean-Marc Rochette, “Snowpiercer” is set more than seven years after an effort to reverse global warming went horribly wrong and plunged the earth into a brutal ice age. The show centers on the last surviving humans, who live on a perpetually moving train that circles the globe in order to stay within the relatively warmer daytime band. Inside the train, the population is divided into a brutal class system in which the wealthy and privileged enjoy luxurious bounty in the front cars, while the poorest are forced to live in squalor and slavery in the back.
In the trailer, you can see that just as in the film, the system is going to reach a breaking point in the form of a long-overdue uprising by the train’s lower classes. In other words, very much like the film — though no word on whether or not the rebel leader played by Daveed Diggs also knows what it’s like to eat babies.
The show also stars Jennifer Connelly as a high ranking member of the train’s wealthy overlords, along with Alison Wright, Mickey Sumner, Susan Park, Iddo Goldberg, Katie McGuinness, Lena Hall, Annalise Basso, Sam Otto, Roberto Urbina, Sheila Vand and Jaylin Fletcher. It premieres May 17 on TNT.
“Snowpiercer” was first announced for development at TNT in 2015 with Josh Friedman as showrunner, but Friedman was fired in 2018 over “creative differences” and replaced by Graeme Manson, co-creator of “Orphan Black.” The show was then given a complete overhaul and shuffled around Turner’s networks before settling firmly at TNT. It’s already been renewed for a second season.
“Snowpiercer” is produced by Tomorrow Studios (a joint venture between Marty Adelstein and ITV Studios), along with CJ Entertainment, who produced the original film. Manson, Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements, director James Hawes, Matthew O’Connor, Scott Derrickson, and the original film’s producers Bong, Miky Lee, Tae-sung Jeong, Park Chan-wook, Lee Tae-hun and Dooho Choi all serve as executive producers.
Watch the trailer above.