Imagine a perfect world. What does that look like for you?
NBCUniversal’s brand new streaming service, Peacock, introduces a new series, Brave New World, and allows you to question a world as such. Based on Aldous Huxley’s novel of the same name, Brave New World “imagines a utopian society that has achieved peace and stability through the prohibition of monogamy, privacy, money, family, and history itself.” Or, as creator/showrunner David Wiener puts it, it’s a show “where everyone thinks they’re happy or at least thinks they are. […] Chaos and comedy and all of that wonderful stuff ensue.”
This year’s Comic-Con@Home brought together creator and showrunner, David Wiener (Homecoming, The Killing); along with cast members: Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Hail, Caesar!), Jessica Brown Findlay (Winter’s Tale, Downton Abbey), Harry Lloyd (Game of Thrones, The Theory of Everything), Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man and the Wasp), Nina Sosanya (Killing Eve), Kylie Bunbury (When They See Us), and Joseph Morgan (The Originals) to discuss the intricacies of their characters.
As to why David thought now was the perfect time to create a television adaptation, he talks of how Aldous Huxley was ultimately concerned about the relationship between humans and technology, “…how humans would use technology to prevent themselves from being uncomfortable. He worried that that tendency would cause people to be so stimulated, so sexually sedated, so pharmacologically numb. They would stop existing in the now. They wouldn’t look inside themselves in an uncomfortable way, and they wouldn’t look outside themselves in considering in an uncomfortable way.”
He also adds that now more than ever, it’s essential for people to do that.
Eventually, that’s where a few key characters come into play to disrupt the normalcy. Nina, who portrays Mustafa AKA the puppet master, shares, “Her character is trying to keep something level and stable. She got slightly obsessed with doing so. When CJack60 and John the Savage turn up, it’s discombobulating. She’s starting to feel out of control.”
Each character’s storyline will someway, somehow proceed to intersect with one another, which was addressed during the panel’s conversation. Friendships, in this world, is a radical notion that will have its own consequences. “One of the things that start to happen at the beginning of our story is that we start to see these people aren’t robots. They’re conditioned not to so much lean into the sentiment. Part of being friends with someone is sometimes getting hurt. It’s caring about someone enough that you’re vulnerable to them,” says David, “But really [the show] is about these friendship connections that unfold in different ways throughout the series.”
In its first season, which consists of 9 episodes, the audience will witness how each actor’s character moves within this New London as newcomers disrupt their livelihoods.
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Brave New World is available to stream on Peacock. Watch the full Comic-Con@Home panel below.
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