TNT moves premiere of Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer series up two weeks
By Corey Smith
The entertainment industry is in flux thanks to the coronavirus, with lots of movies and TV shows getting cancelled or delayed as everyone tries to work their way through this global pandemic. But there are a few cases where studios and networks are releasing things sooner rather than later. For example, Deadline reports that it’s releasing its show Snowpiercer, based on the Bong Joon-ho movie of the same name, two weeks ahead of schedule, on Sunday, May 17. TNT apparently made the move to quench the thirst for new content felt by millions of Americans currently sheltering at home.
Headlined by Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs, the series will expand on the world of Joon-ho’s film (itself based on the graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob), which takes place on a train that always had to keep moving or succumb to the manmade ice age raging outside. The train, called the Snowpiercer, contains the last surviving members of humanity, who have segmented themselves off into very distinct classes.
The series also stars Alison Wright, Mickey Sumner, Susan Park, Iddo Goldberg, Katie McGuinness, Lena Hall, Annalise Basso, Sam Otto, Roberto Urbina, Sheila Vand and Jaylin Fletcher. Joon-ho, who is riding high right now on the back of the Best Picture win for his film Parasite, is involved in the series as a producer.
Brett Weitz, general manager for TNT, TBS and truTV, explained the scheduling change. “Snowpiercer is one of the most anticipated original series of 2020 and in this climate, viewers are craving thrilling, engaging, edge-of-your-seat content that speaks to them on a deeper level. It is extremely important that we continue with our promise to meet audiences where they are, and to that effect, we are moving up Snowpiercer’s premiere so that fans can enjoy this futuristic series even earlier.”
As for the show itself, it’s run through three different showrunners and was once set to debut on TBS. Still, despite the rocky production, season 2 of the series was already filming before production was halted due to coronavirus concerns.
Interestingly, Snowpiercer isn’t the only Bong Joon-ho movie being turned into a show: there’s also a move to make Parasite into a show at HBO. It’s Joon-ho’s world now.
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