THE TWILIGHT ZONE: 3 Teases From the PaleyFest Panel

A new version of THE TWILIGHT ZONE is coming to CBS All Access on Monday, April 1st, and the creative team behind the reboot is very aware of its long legacy and cultural impact.

“It is not a show you could reboot and take it lightly,” executive producer/host Jordan Peele said during the show’s PaleyFest. When Peele and his creative partners debated whether they should make the attempt, “one of the things we kept coming back to was the timing felt right…it feels like we’re living in the f—king Twilight Zone.”

“One thing we landed on was [THE TWILIGHT ZONE creator Rod] Serling’s show was important,,” Peele continued. “He was a master of parable. He’s a master of allegory. He spoke to society through story. We believe is one of…the most powerful weapons we have against violence and hatred and things the world can bring…there are some things Serling was simply 50 years too early to talk about.”

While most details about the upcoming reboot are being kept on the DL, the team did tease a few new things at their panel…

1) There won’t be any straight-up remakes of classic episodes.

Though “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” is a clear nod to the William Shatner-led “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” (which was also recreated in 1983’s TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE), executive producer Win Rosenfeld was clear it wouldn’t be an adaptation of the original tale. “Fans are going to find a ton of homages,” he said. “The original series looms large in all of it.”

2) The installment featuring Ike Barinholtz reminded him of his favorite installment.

“I got sent the script, which was so well-written by the great Heather Campbell,” Barinholtz said of the episode, which also includes Taissa Farmiga, Rhea Seehorn, Luke Kirby, and Percy Hynes-White. “It definitely dealt with the overall theme of toxic masculinity…I knew that I was going to work with Rhea and Taissa who I had been huge fans of. It had tones of my favorite episode, which is the ‘The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.’”

All Seehorn and Farmiga could tease about their characters? They play sisters.

3) The scripts prompted visceral reactions from its stars.

Ginnifer Goodwin joked she packed her bags before she ever read the script, but when she sat down to tackle what was ahead, “I got sick from it.”

“It hooked me in a way that made me so uncomfortable,” she admitted. “I don’t think there was any [acting] proof out there that I could do [what they asked of me]…[but] I felt very appropriately cast for when my character begins.” Goodwin teased her character’s arc was equivalent of being walked to the edge of a cliff and pushed off—“let’s see what happens when she falls!”

Sanaa Lathan was equally as enthralled with her episode: “I was on the edge of my seat throughout the whole read…it was exciting writing and true character development.”

“It really is one of those things where you read [it] and go, ‘People are trying to say something,” added Steven Yeun, about his episode, “A Traveler,” penned by THE X-FILES’ Glen Morgan.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE, Series Premiere, Monday, April 1, CBS All Access

RELATED:

• THE TWILIGHT ZONE Enlists Zazie Beetz and Betty Gabriel
• THE TWILIGHT ZONE: CBS All Access Releases a Star-Studded Trailer for the Jordan Peele-Hosted Reboot
• THE TWILIGHT ZONE: Ginnifer Goodwin to Guest Star
• THE TWILIGHT ZONE: Jordan Peele Teases CBS All Access Series in Super Bowl Ad
• THE TWILIGHT ZONE: CBS All Access Sets April Launch
• THE TWILIGHT ZONE Adds John Cho, Allison Tolman, and Jacob Tremblay
• THE TWILIGHT ZONE: Adam Scott to Star in ‘Nightmare at 30,000 Feet’
• Jordan Peele to Host THE TWILIGHT ZONE

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