Trailer For Showtime's Sci-Fi Thriller Series THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Naomie Harris

Showtime has released a teaser trailer for its sci-fi series titled The Man Who Fell To Earth, which is based on the book by Walter Tevis and inspired by David Bowie’s iconic 1976 sci-fi film of the same name.

This series adaptation stars Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, The Old Guard) and Naomie Harris (Moonlight, No Time to Die), and the story follows “a new alien character (Ejiofor) who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution and must confront his own past to determine our future.” It looks like a wonderful series that will tell a moving story.

Naomie Harris will play Justin Falls, a brilliant scientist and engineer who must conquer her own demons in the race to save two worlds. The cast also includes Jimmi Simpson, Rob Delaney, and Sonya Cassidy. Alex Kurtzman serves as co-showrunner on the new series with Jenny Lumet and John Hlavin.

When talking about the series, Kurtzman said that Ejiofor plays "an entirely different character with an entirely different story. He is of the same alien species that Bowie was in the film, but he's not the same character — and he wasn't the first one here. He arrives on our planet looking specifically for her. She has such extraordinary ability inside of her, but is afraid to engage with the part of herself that can make the world better."

When talking about Bowie and the original film, Kurtzman went on to say, "You can't think of the film without thinking of David Bowie. And it was a radically daunting prospect to stand in his shadow. His legacy is very meaningful to people, and that was not something to play around with lightly. The hubris of even choosing to do that could take you down."

So they aren’t attempting to replicate that Bowie magic. They are just looking to do something different and tell an interesting story with a new character. When talking about the kind of story they wanted to tell, Kurtzman shared, “One thing that I really responded to was the loneliness of [Bowie's] character in both the novel and the film. They're about this extraordinary loneliness, and how human loneliness can ultimately destroy you. I loved that feeling in the work that had been made, [but] it was not the story that I wanted to tell, and it was not the story that Jenny wanted to tell. We were interested in integrating that loneliness, but I think we wanted to tell a story that's ultimately much more uplifting."

The Man Who Fell To Earth series will start streaming in spring 2022. Check out the teaser trailer!