We first reported on it back in August of last year, but WGN’s underground railroad drama set in the antebellum South finally has a teaser. Frankly, given the intense subject matter, we were probably going to be interested regardless, but this is a nice hook for the uninitiated: The camera slowly pans across slaves picking cotton, only to eventually pass one with a Bible hidden under their shirt, until it comes to rest on another slave pulling a gun from their belt, with the portentous voiceover intoning, “When we run, ain‘t no white man gonna be able to stop us.” Smash cut to titles.
Underground is being executive produced by Sons Of Anarchy and Heroes writers Misha Green and Joe Pokaski, along with Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman and musician (not to mention fellow Academy Award winner) John Legend. And it stars people like Christopher Meloni, Jurnee Smollett-Bell (True Blood), Aldis Hodge (Straight Outta Compton), Jessica de Gouw (Arrow), and even a Buffy alum in Marc Blucas (yeah, we know, but poor Riley has gotten enough shit). This teaser suggests the tone of a thriller, so come early 2016, we’ll see just how thrilling Underground actually is. On the old “WGN hourlong period piece” scale, we’re hoping it hews closer to the Manhattan vector than the Salem variable.