"Lovecraft Country" Is the Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams Collab You Didn't Know You Needed
The first teaser for the HBO series is out now
Jordan Peele has made a name for himself for telling the story of the black experience in America with the atmosphere of tragicomic psychological horror it deserves.
But if there's one thing that movies like Us and Get Out lack, it's the incursion of eldritch horrors from realms beyond our perception. That's where J.J. Abrams of Lost and Cloverfield can help out with Peele's new project for HBO, Lovecraft Country. Based on Matt Ruff's 2017 novel of the same name, Lovecraft Country tells the story of Atticus Black, a young black man living in the Jim Crow 1950s, who needs to travel to a dangerous region of America—the titular Lovecraft Country—to track down his missing father.
For anyone familiar with The Negro Motorist Green-Book, the idea that there could be an entire region of the US that is dangerous to the point of being off-limits to casual travel makes perfect sense, but as the name implies, Lovecraft Country has more than just violent bigots to contend with (though the trailer makes it clear that there are plenty of those too). In his search for his father, Atticus will have to face down otherworldly monsters, possessions, demonic cults, and who knows what else—all while surviving a road trip through segregation era America as a black man.
The blend of horror-fantasy with historical drama looks like a promising mix, and viewers familiar with author H.P. Lovecraft's (disgusting) views on race should appreciate his name being appropriated for this project. Lovecraft Country will star Jonathan Majors as Atticus Black, Jurnee Smollett-Bell as his friend "Leti" Dandridge, Michael K. Williams as his father Montrose Freeman, and Courtney B. Vance as his uncle George Black, with Misha Green of Underground and Sons of Anarchy as the head writer and executive producer. The series is set to premiere on HBO in August.