HBO Max’s Station Eleven trailer brings a traveling band of performers to the end of the world
The survivors of the Apocolypse include Mackenzie Davis, Himesh Patel, and the always welcome Lori Petty
Aux News Station Eleven
The end of the world won’t be the end of people if the trailer for HBO Max’s hotly anticipated series Station Eleven reveals. Evoking the horseback riding culture of the early days of The Walking Dead, this adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel’s international bestseller is a sprawling post-apocalyptic television series.
Station Eleven’s trailer succinctly lays out the premise. The multi-pronged narrative that crosses time and space follows the survivors of a deadly virus. (ugh, c’mon, already?). One such group takes up residence in an abandoned airport, which according to one character is “the best thing that could’ve happened.” Anyone who’s been laid over in JFK knows this isn’t true, but whatever, we’ll give him a pass because the world ended. Another is a roving band of actors and performers, putting up Shakespeare productions across the barren United States.
The book spans multiple timelines, giving a complete account of the story’s main character Kirsten. Kirsten is played by both Halt And Catch Fire’s Mackenzie Davis (she plays adult Kirsten) and by newcomer Matilda Lawler. Her story spans decades, as does her friendship with Jeevan (Hamish Patel), who becomes her de facto caretaker as a child.
There are some exciting names in the project, too. Who isn’t happy to see Lori Petty and Gael Garcìa Bernal? They’re always a welcome addition to any project.
The show comes from Patrick Somerville, the creator of Netflix’s Maniac, which starred Jonah Hill and Emma Stone and ran for 10 episodes in 2018. Somerville also spent some time in the wastelands of the end of the world as a writer for HBO’s The Leftovers, so that’s a pretty strong pedigree right there.
Hiro Murai, a longtime collaborator with Donald Glover, directing Atlanta, Guava Island, and the “This Is America” music video, is helming two episodes of Station Eleven. He’s also directed episodes of Barry, so it’ll be exciting to see what he does with the remaining vestiges of humanity. Other directors include Jeremy Podeswa, Helen Shaver, and Lucy Tcherniak.
The first three episodes of Station Eleven will premiere on HBO Max on December 16. After that, two episodes will premiere weekly on Thursdays until the final episode on January 13.
Correction: An earlier version of this article featured several inaccuracies, including plot details and credits. The airport and theater troupe are two distinct groups, and Hiro Murai will not be directing all 10 episodes. We regret the error.
34 Comments
I look forward to seeing Mackenzie Davis Davis and Hamish Patel surviving the Apocolypse.
I look forward to their offspring populating the planet!
If you read the article, you may look forward to that rather less. Davis plays the grown up version of the little girl in the header image.
Hey, it’s an apocalypse. If Hamish is a little long in the tooth by the time Mackenzie grows up….what are you gonna do?
What am I gonna do? Given that it’s the apocalypse, I’ll probably just continue to be dead.
FWIW, my comment was meant to point out three errors in the article: his name is Himesh Patel but he’s called “Hamish” in the body of the article, the subheader called her “Mackenzie Davis Davis” which was fixed later and “apocalypse” was misspelled in the subheader as well.
“Wud ya leek some garlic naan wi’ ya haggis, Jimmy?” – Hamish Patel
Haggis and naan bread is a sturdy and excellent combination. Proper winter stodge.
They survived because they injected bleach into their pretty little asses!
As a virus ravages humanity (ugh, c’mon, already?)Stop it with that stuff. The book was published in 2014 and production on this started well before most people new what a coronavirus was. If anything it’s just proof that when Trump repeatedly stated “Nobody could have predicted this” he was forgetting about Canadian authors. And American authors (Sarah Pinsker most recently that I can think of, but lots of others), authors from lots of other countries, epidemiologists from around the world, his own government departments, and anybody with a brain.
Between all them authors you’re talking about and them calling it a “novel coronavirus” I’m starting to think books might be what caused Covid. Quick, let’s burn down the local liberry!
Done and done! All their coloring books had a pervasive liberal bias anyway.
Oh you.
The Victorians tried to warn us that novel reading would lead to illness. Granted, that was only for the weak and delicate womanly readers, but they were onto something.
To be fair, that’s seemingly how Y: The Last Man got cancelled before all the episodes had premiered. And on a streaming platform, no less…
As someone who loved the comic, I really wanted to love the show, but I didn’t bother starting the second episode. To be honest, a large part of it is that my cultural tastes have been narrowing alarmingly as middle age takes me.
That show was on my list, but I never got around to it. Without spoilers (to the best of your ability), can you tell me why you disliked it so much?
I didn’t dislike it, I just couldn’t summon enthusiasm about it. The pilot tries to introduce many more characters at the start than the comic did, to the point where I didn’t know who was linked to whom. And Yorick was more of a dick than in the comics, where his defining quality is haplessness. But even that wasn’t a deal breaker. The actual moment of all the men dying (does stating the very premise of a show count as a spoiler?), though, was excellently and horrifically done.
Hmm looks like they moved the opening to Chicago, even though I know they later filmed around Toronto. Not that I’m complaining. I don’t have HBO or HBO Max but I might need to figure out a way to watch this.
Station Eleven’s trailer succinctly lays out the premise. As a
virus ravages humanity…, a theater troupe takes
up residence in an abandoned airport, … 20 years later, they take their act on the
road.That’s a mighty thin premise
that’s not QUITE the whole premise. As an avid fan of the book I assure you there’s a LIL bit more to it than that.
Breaking into the Museum of Civilization to steal that Atari Lynx 2. (Purely as a display piece, even in a world with plentiful AAs I wouldn’t bother playing it.)
This looks dumb as hell. Just tropes, tropes, tropes.
“the always welcome Lori Petty?!” Are you fucking kidding me?! She’s an absolute nut job. I mean, yeah, she worked for OITNB. But she outright frightens me.
“Would you ask Lori Petty that question?” – a visibly drunk and confused Billy Bob Thornton.
Ah, apocalyptic television. My favourite genre of non-fiction.
I would prefer if Somerville were referred to as the “adapter” rather than “creator” of Maniac, even if his version is extremely different (and, in my opinion, worse than the more deliberately lowbrow original).
The first episode is all the survivors standing around, insisting the media is blowing the apocalypse all out of proportion.
Never heard that one before
No, that’s Fox News.
That was not a good trailer.
The multi-pronged narrative that crosses time and space follows the survivors of a deadly virus. (ugh, c’mon, already?).No one says you need to watch this, whinger. Piss off and watch endless re-runs of that shite She-Ra if you must.
“One such group takes up residence in an abandoned airport, which according to one character is “the best thing that could’ve happened.” Anyone who’s been laid over in JFK knows this isn’t true”.
Well, I was at JFK in August 2020 and it was completely empty besides the few dozen people like me that could travel internationally. Everything was closed except one McDonalds or Subway. Parking lots totally empty. I was absolutely unreal. Walking straight through what is usually a long wait maze at security made a great memory…but the best part was flying with just 24 people on board and having 4 seats to ourselves. Makes me wish I had grand children!