HBO has released the first trailer for their upcoming alt-history drama ‘The Plot Against America‘, based on the novel by Philip Roth, from David Simon and Ed Burns, the team behind ‘The Wire’.
‘The Plot Against America’ is set in an alternate American history and centres on a Jewish family in New Jersey who watch the political rise of Charles Lindbergh, an aviator hero and xenophobic populist who becomes president, defeating Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, and turns the country toward fascism.
The ensemble cast includes:
John Turturro (‘The Night Of’) as Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf, a conservative rabbi and a transplant from Charleston, S.C. where he gained his first synagogue pulpit and became a widower with the death of his affluent wife. Bengelsdorf seizes the reins of history to become a key figure in the emergent Lindbergh administration — despite growing opposition within the Jewish community as a whole.
Winona Ryder (‘Stranger Things’) as Evelyn Finkel. Evelyn is unmarried, her plans arrested by 10 years of caring for her infirm mother, and is hungry to find her own place in life. The sudden attention of a key Lindbergh supporter — the politically ascendant clergyman, Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf — are exhilarating and transformational for her
Zoe Kazan (‘The Deuce’) as Elizabeth “Bess” Levin, younger sister to Evelyn. An insightful mother and homemaker, who fears for the future as she tries to protect her family from the escalating political climate and plan a possible escape for the forces that seem to be threatening her world.
Morgan Spector (‘Homeland’) as Herman Levin, the proud and opinionated father, who works as an insurance agent and tries to maintain normalcy in the life of his family and friends even as his country seems to be slipping into fascism, anti-Semitism and xenophobic isolationism.
Anthony Boyle (‘Derry Girls’, ‘Ordeal by Innocence’) as Alvin Levin, the angry and intelligent orphaned nephew to Herman. He allows political differences with his family, personal grudges and resentments, and his own abhorrence of hypocrisy and cant to drive him from street crime to the battlefields of Europe and back.
Azhy Robertson (‘Marriage Story’) as Philip Levin, the youngest of the Levin family. Philip copes with his own innocent curiosity and growing anxiety in a world that seems to be collapsing around him, both at home and in the streets.
Caleb Malis as Sandy Levin, the Levin’s artistic teenage son, who rebels against his family and his father in particular as his adolescence becomes entangled with his growing admiration for Lindbergh – a stance encouraged by his beloved Aunt Evelyn’s guidance.
David Simon and Ed Burns (‘The Wire’, ‘Generation Kill’) serve as writers and executive producers on the series. Additional executive producers on the project include Joe Roth, Nina Noble, Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle, Susan Goldberg and Jeff Kirschenbaum; co-executive producers are Dennis Stratton and Philip Roth.
‘The Plot Against America‘ premieres March 16th, 2020 at 9pm on HBO in the US. The UK air date has not yet been announced, but it should show up on Sky Atlantic in the UK via their carriage deal at some point. We’ll let you know when we have some confirmation.
