After making its premiere during the TCA Summer Press Tour, the first trailer for Syfy’s upcoming reimagining of the sci-fi classic 12 Monkeys has made its way online, painting a gritty and dramatic picture. Many of us, myself included, didn’t really know what to expect from this show, which Syfy greenlit for a 13-episode first season set to premiere in January, but the feel of this preview is certainly exciting, though it does seem almost too similar to Terry Gilliam’s original film.
Starring Aaron Stanford, Amanda Schull, Noah Bean, and Kirk Acevedo, Syfy’s 12 Monkeys centers on a man who is sent back through time to find the origins of and prevent a deadly plague. However, the show’s exec-producers promise that their series isn’t simply a rehash of the movie. During the TCA tour, co-creator Terry Matalas said:
“I think it’s a complete sort of reimagining. We were all very, very big fans of the original film and had a deep love and respect for that material. So when we came together with Richard [exec-producer Richard Suckle] and talked about this, we didn’t want to just re do what the movie does. We changed the rules in the movie. Can’t actually change time, and here you can. So everything from the top down changed, from Cole’s character to Dr. Railly’s character to some new characters, Ramse and Aaron. So the story, while it has a lot of the same themes, it’s very different.”
While deviating from the source material is certainly a good thing (no way Syfy is going to top the original 12 Monkeys), I do hope that the show can deliver on Matalas’ promise. That trailer does look very familiar, after all.
Comic-Con goers may be disappointed to learn that this trailer is all we’re getting from this show for a while – Syfy opted to keep production going instead of sending the cast to the Con. Still, the preview should work to build anticipation as 12 Monkeys gets closer to its premiere in January of 2015.
