After years of catering to older demographics and last season’s big ideas, CBS has finally gotten out ahead of one of 2017’s hottest trends, announcing that it’s developing a new drama about international tensions and the likelihood of all-out nuclear war. According to Deadline, the network has just started development on a new thriller from Star Trek’s Alex Kurtzman, titled Trident (and, sadly, not our suggestion, The Big Bang Reality), about an incident on a U.S. nuclear sub that threatens to spark a global thermonuclear crisis. The series is being written by Fringe and Law & Order alum David Wilcox.
The series will focus on “a mysterious death aboard an American nuclear submarine” which “tests the mettle of the crew, the White House, the Pentagon, and the CIA, and causes a crisis that threatens to expose a conspiracy that could trigger World War III.” (Which, honestly, seems needlessly elaborate, given that all you apparently need is a presidential smart phone and a set of tiny orange thumbs, but we’ll see where it goes.) Meanwhile, tensions on board the sub itself will provide the network’s audiences with a bit of family drama familiarity, as a “tough, talented recent graduate of submarine school” faces off against her father, who suddenly finds himself in charge of a boat with nuclear launch capabilities.