A reboot of the ‘Twilight Zone’ will air on April 1
A reboot of the beloved American television show, the “Twilight Zone,” will air on CBS All Access on April 1, with Jordan Peele as its narrator.
The original show was made in black and white, airing from 1959 to 1964 with five seasons. Rod Serling was the narrator and head writer of the show, appearing at the beginning of episodes of the show. The show originally aired on CBS television.
The episodes of this show were each separate stories of the science fiction genre with a usual twist ending and moral.
A teaser trailer of the revamped series was released on Feb. 3 during the Super Bowl. The trailer started as an interruption to the Super Bowl cast and featured Peele walking in an empty football stadium. Another trailer was released on Feb. 21 including snippets of episodes of the reboot.
In the second trailer, a reference to the original series was made through a body of a creature washed up on a shore that looked like the one in the popular episode, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” In the original episode that aired in 1963, said creature was featured on the wing of a plane where only one character could see it and the other characters did not believe him.
The cast for episodes of the new series includes some popular names such as Adam Scott, John Cho, Steven Yeun and Jacob Tremblay among others.
Peele, an executive producer of the new rendition of the show, is an academy award winner for his screenplay of the movie “Get Out,” a mystery thriller that was released in 2017. This movie was also nominated for best picture, best actor, and best director at the 2018 Oscars.
Maria Cherry, a freshman at the University of Rhode Island, who has seen the movie “Get Out” had some comments about the movie and Peele’s directing style.
“The movie ‘Get Out’ dramaticized racial tensions to create a creepy and psychologically aware setting,” said Cherry. “Jordan Peele is an outstanding director who uses strong visuals and character relationships to portray a larger theme.”
This may serve the series well in portraying the darker tones that the original series was able to put out.
Peele also has a new mystery thriller movie, “Us,” debuting on March 22. With a background making thrillers such as “Us” and “Get Out,” Peele seems ready to take on a science fiction thriller series such as “The Twilight Zone.”
“That’ll be cool in today’s setting,” said Stephanie Lowe, a senior psychology major who has seen a couple of episodes from the original series.
The director of the new episodes of the show will be Gerard McMurray, who directed “The First Purge.” As Peele and McMurray take on the show with fresh eyes and a background in more thrilling movies, it is sure to be an interesting reboot.
In an article by CBS News, “The 10 greatest ‘Twilight Zone’ episodes” were listed as “Eye of the Beholder,” “The Hitch-Hiker,” “The Invaders,” “It’s a Good Life,” “The Lonely,” “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” “Time Enough at Last,” “Twenty-Two” and “Walking Distance.”