New York Comic Con is in full swing, which means juicy new announcements for upcoming projects. TNT has gifted us with a teaser trailer for the long awaited post-apocalyptic, sci-fi thriller Snowpiercer series during the panel Saturday afternoon. The panel featured Oscar® winner Jennifer Connelly Tony Award® winner Daveed Diggs, Emmy® nominee Alison Wright, Mickey Sumner, Tony Award® winner and Grammy® nominee Lena Hall, Sheila Vand, Steven Ogg and executive producer and showrunner Graeme Manson.
Based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, the series will be set seven years after the world turns into a frozen wasteland. There’s also an earlier film of the same name starring Chris Evans that’s inspired by the novel, but it’s set further into the future than the upcoming series.
“First, the weather changed. The deniers knew why, but they still doomed us with their lies.”
The trailer starts by explaining how humanity has created a dire situation for their world by first accelerating climate change first through unsustainable behavior and further with global conflicts. The ice has melted, and with humanity backed into a corner, they rely on the scientific community to fix a truly irreparable situation. The trailer depicts what seem to be nuclear weapons into the sky, but as the narration continues, it’s shown to be the scientists’ best efforts to reverse the catastrophic warming of Earth. It’s an aggressive over-correction, plunging the world into an ice age of comparable magnitude.
There’s hope in the form of a train with 1001 cars designed by visionary Mr. Wilford to withstand the deep freeze while continuously circumnavigating the world, but it’s hope that only the rich, many of which directly contributed to the apocalyptic events, can afford. This, of course, doesn’t sit right with those that are left behind to a certain demise.
“So we the people, the survivors they left behind, invaded their train.”
At this point, during the narrator described invasion, the teaser trailer shifts from a dark, graphic novel style animation into live action. This stylistic choice within the first glimpse of the show’s atmosphere sets quite a tone, leading us to believe that the live action series will follow the artistry of the source material. Manson, who also co-created Orphan Black, has confirmed that show will transition into animation a few times over the duration of the season. The teaser ends abruptly in the middle of the chaotic invasion of the train.
A central theme to both the graphic novel as well as the big screen adaptation is the division between the classes and the conflict that inevitably arises between them. On the train, the elite live luxuriously in the front cars while the lower classes are constrained to the back of the train to live in squalor with limited resources. Showrunner Manson has indicated that the first season will focus on the “rebellion, revolution, and resistance” that results from such a rigid class system amidst extenuating circumstances. Which hopefully means that viewers should expect gritty fight scenes set in confined spaces with rudimentary and improvised weapons.
Given the current uptick in climate change activism, led by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, Snowpiercer is set for a relevant and timely release in Spring 2020. Season two will begin filming later this month.
