On the great spectrum of Bryan Cranston performances—with the wacky Hal from Malcolm In The Middle on one end and the terrifying Walter White from Breaking Bad on the other—it looks like his Lyndon B. Johnson from HBO’s All The Way is going to rest squarely in the middle. He’s not especially funny in this teaser, but he’s also not very scary. He just looks like a man trying to do his best when the presidency is thrust upon him after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Thankfully, he’s got Anthony Mackie’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Melissa Leo’s Lady Bird Johnson, and Bradley Whitford’s Hubert Humphrey there to have dramatic conversations with, so maybe he’ll actually manage to keep the United States from descending into an apocalyptic wasteland (no spoilers!).
All The Way is based on the play of the same name, which won Cranston a Tony award in 2014. It’ll premiere on HBO on May 21.