Viewers around the world can get an early preview of M. Night Shyamalans’ Wayward Pines
Fox’s new event series, Wayward Pines, doesn’t officially premiere until May 14, but—in a shocking twist—viewers all over the world will be able to see the first episode for free. Starting tomorrow, Variety says that people living in over 126 countries will be able to watch the episode through cable on-demand systems, Fox’s website, the Fox Now app, the international Fox Play app, Hulu, Facebook, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, the PlayStation store, Vudu, and Xbox Video. We don’t have a full list of the 126 countries, but it’s safe to assume that the United States is one of them, because we’re all very self-centered here.
Variety calls this stunt “the first global preview event,” and if you’re thinking that only a master like M. Night Shyamalan could pull off something so unexpected, you’re right. Well, not really, the marketing department probably came up with this, but Shyamalan directed Wayward Pines’ first episode and he’s an executive producer on it as well. The show—based on the book series by Blake Crouch—stars Matt Dillon as a Secret Service agent who visits a perfectly peaceful town called Wayward Pines in hopes of finding some missing federal agents. Terrence Howard, Juliette Lewis, and Carla Gugino are also there, but there’s nothing mysterious going on. Actually, there is! Classic Shyamalan twist.
In yet another shocking twist, Wayward Pines’ regular debut on May 14 will also premiere at the same time across 126 different countries. Variety is calling it “the world’s largest-ever day-and-date launch for a scripted series,” because apparently the other thing wasn’t enough of a big deal. The only way to top something as twisty as this would be for Fox to randomly pick one person in the world, and then they’ll be the only one who gets to see Wayward Pines’ second episode.