HBO

HBO unveiled a new trailer for ‘Lovecraft Country’ that introduces some ghoulish monsters that will populate the series.  But even though there are some frightening zombie-like creeps, there’s nothing terribly Lovecraftian… until the end.  YES!  The series will actually include some Chthulu-like tentacled beasts!

You can glimpse them and more in the new trailer below:

Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Matt Ruff,  ‘Lovecraft Country’ was developed for television by J.J. Abrams, Jordan Peele, and Misha Green, the latter of whom serves as showrunner.  Set in 1950s Jim Crow America, the series explores racism with a horror spin.  Atticus Black (Jonathan Majors), a Korean War veteran, and science-fiction-obsessed reader, is traveling through the South, with his uncle, George Freeman (Courtney B. Vance), and his friend, singer and activist Letitia “Leti” Lewis (Jurnee Smollett), searching for his father, Montrose (Michael K. Williams).  In addition to dealing with the horrors of corrupt police brutality, the traveling trio finds themselves encountering nightmarish Lovecraftian monsters.

Expect the literal monsters to perhaps pale in comparison to those of the human variety.

As Williams told EW:

 “Even before coronavirus and the murder of George Floyd, when I read the scripts last year I was like, ‘This is America right now.’ That was crystal clear.”

Vance added:

“The hangings, the beatings, the killings — it’s the same thing that was happening back then.  I really wanted to be a part of something that was as important as delineating for people what it was [like] for us when we had to actually [travel] ourselves and figure out where we could stay, and then publish a book.… It is so sad that in this day and age we’re still dealing with the same issues.”

‘Lovecraft Country’ arrives on HBO on August 16.  It will also be available to stream on HBO Max.