We’re thirsty for this historical drama.
Starring Matt Bomer as Hawkins Fuller and Jonathan Bailey as Tim Laughlin, Fellow Travelers is an upcoming Showtime series set in Washington, DC in the 1950s. After these two characters meet and start to fall in love, they must experience the Vietnam War protest of the 1960s, the rise of disco in the 1970s, and the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
The show was created by Ron Nyswaner (Ray Donovan, Homeland) and is based on the 2007 fiction novel Fellow Travelers by Thomas Mallon. The cast also includes Allison Williams as Lucy, Jelani Alladin as Marcus, Noah J. Ricketts as Frankie, Linus Roache as Senator Wesley Smith, and Will Brill as Roy, among others.
In this first teaser, we see Bailey’s and Bomer’s characters walking past one another in a hallway and exchanging flirtatious glances. Fireworks and several other explosive scenes are intertwined in the teaser, showing us that these two are about to experience a lot of things together after this initial chance encounter.
The core of Fellow Travelers is centered around the McCarthyism of the 1950s, a.k.a. the second “Red Scare,” where left-wing individuals would be persecuted after being portrayed and labeled as “communists.” This movement was led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, who will be played by Chris Bauer in the series.
Though this is a Showtime original series, the premium cable network has recently been integrated into the Paramount+ streaming service. As such, subscribers of Paramount+ with Showtime will be able to watch Fellow Travelers in the US.
A historical queer love story with Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey? We will be watching!
Fellow Travelers is coming soon to Showtime and Paramount+.