Executive producer Jonathan Nolan opened the 2022 New York Comic Con panel for Prime Video’s The Peripheral by explaining just how he and executive producer Lisa Joy got involved in the sci-fi thriller. “Vincenzo Natali brought us – who we’ve been lucky enough to work with for years on Westworld – came to us and said, ‘How do you guys feel about helping me bring to life a William Gibson book?’ We got to the William Gibson part and we said, ‘Sure.’”
Nolan recalls reading the books out of order when he was 14 years old, describing the experience as like that “first hit of acid.” Nolan confessed he’s watched for the last 20 years as every filmmaker – himself included – ripped off Gibson’s ideas. “For us, this felt like coming full circle. Once we read the book, we knew this was the perfect adaptation for a series for William Gibson.”
Director/executive producer Vincenzo Natali failed in his first attempt to do a Gibson adaptation, but that experience allowed him to get to know Mr. Gibson. “He gave me Peripheral early on and I read it and went, ‘There’s no way this is a movie because it is this very layered, textured, highly complex story with many characters, but it could be a TV series.’”
Lisa Joy, a sci-fi geek, was drawn to the project because of Gibson’s world-building skills. “I think any time that sci-fi has a mix of world-building and that kind of emotional intimacy and resonance, it’s kind of undeniable for me.”
Creator/showrunner Scott Smith admired the fact that William Gibson’s characters are so relatable, and lifelong sci-fi fan Chloe Grace Moretz was a huge admirer of the book.
“When we first had our first meeting together – I want to say it was like three years ago – I really connected to Flynne Fisher. She’s from North Carolina; a lot of my family is from North Carolina. She had this kind of love of gaming and of adventure and of escaping. That was something that I really relied on, in my teenage years especially – and to this day,” explained Moretz. “And so for me to kind of be able to jump into a character where I can find those crevices and show this journey of this girl who’s going to future London…and yeah, the future may be filled with a little bit of doom but for it to possibly be a roadmap to them bettering their current world and what they’re currently dealing with, there’s just so many layers to it that I couldn’t possibly not want to do.”
Gary Carr’s character Wilf Netherton is integral in introducing the audience to the complex world of The Peripheral. Carr admitted he’d never heard of Gibson or the book prior to this series. And he’d never read science fiction before, but he jumped at the chance to be a part of the series based on Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s involvement.
“But then it was such a great experience to read the book and the scripts. I think Scott did such an amazing job with the text. But with Wilf in particular, yeah, it was a huge responsibility, but it was exciting. I think what’s exciting about this project is the concept is high-level – it seems crazy – but it’s actually believable as well. I felt like I didn’t have to do much work. Everything was in the text already,” said Carr. “You just had to turn up. The level of execution and production is so high, all I had to do was turn up and say what’s on the page. So, I didn’t really feel the pressure. But in terms of responsibility of Wilf introducing the audience to this world, it was real simple.”
Jack Reynor counts himself as a sci-fi guy and believes the group involved in this series is a ferociously talented bunch of people. “Beyond that, I read the book and thought that it was a fascinating piece of speculative fiction. Some of the technology that we see in the book and in the TV show subsequently is stuff that either feels like it’s just around the corner or we already have some version of it. That was quite compelling.
But there’s a real warmth in the book between Flynne and Burton as brother and sister. And I think a lot of sci-fi can feel quite cold. But this was sort of the antithesis of that in a way. On the page, it’s an incredibly fun shoot. There’s a lot of action. There’s a lot of things blowing up. It’s really physical; it’s really fun. But it’s also very warm and it’s very grounded in its humanity. That was a big draw,” said Reynor.
T’Nia Miller describes her character Cherise Nuland as a massive powerhouse who’s sadistic as f*ck. “How do you play that and bring grace to it and charm? The writing is just sublime to have those words in your mouth and to play with them,” said Miller. “Although this is set many, many, many years in the future it really feels like it could happen in 10 years’ time. And so, there’s a warning in there. It’s sci-fi but the blink of an eye and it could actually happen. And that’s terribly exciting.”
JJ Feild was impressed with the sheer scale of the project, and that there were a lot of practical sets rather than strictly CGI components. “So as an actor, you’re in this future world. I’m not stood in front of a blue screen trying to imagine what’s behind me. They built every single set and then enhanced it with the brilliance of their special effects,” explained Feild.
He added: “Gibson has this terrifying ability to take what we know now and distort it into the future very close. […] What Gibson’s done is this is an extraordinary tech world and I play a Russian oligarch who’s taken over London. And the fact that this was written not this year is extraordinary.”
The series is set in two distinct worlds – Clanton in 2032 and London in 2099 – which presented a real challenge. Natali described the connection as a real romance between two worlds. “Everything that is in future London is sort of what Flynne craves or would wish to escape to. And everything that’s in Clanton in her world, which is near-future rural southern United States, Wilf desires. It’s like the pre-post-human world that seems so perfect to him. And yet there’s this gap of time between them. It was all about the dialectic, the collision of those two worlds. That’s what made it really, really exciting.”
Natali confirmed they shot everything on location, so London is London. “But we altered it in subtle the ways. We really sort of play up a society that is obsessed with the past, but they have technology that’s so sophisticated it’s really invisible. So, it was all about the sort of beautiful façade but when you peel it back, there’s something a little bit terrifying and formidable.”
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The Peripheral premieres on Prime Video on October 21, 2022.
The Plot: Flynne Fisher (Chloe Grace Moretz), her Marine veteran brother, Burton (Jack Reynor), and their dying mother live in a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains in 2032. As their mother’s health deteriorates and the medical bills add up, Flynne and Burton make extra money playing simulations (Sims). The two siblings share Burton’s avatar, “jockeying” for high-paying customers to beat challenging game levels. When Burton is offered a chance to beta test a new Sim, it’s Flynne who ends up playing, pretending to be her brother.
The Sim takes place in London and it tasks Flynne with breaking into a corporation known as the Research Institute—to steal a valuable secret. When the assignment goes badly wrong, Flynne begins to realize the Sim is more real than she ever could have imagined. The London she’s exploring exists in the future…year 2099. And what Flynne has uncovered in the Research Institute has put her and her family in grave peril. There are people from the future who want to use Flynne for the information she’s stolen…and there are others who want Flynne dead. Flynne encounters Wilf (Gary Carr) in Future London, a man who may be the key to unlocking the mystery at hand. But first, in her present, Flynne and Burton, along with his former elite military unit, must rally to save themselves from forces intent on killing them—forces sent from the future to reclaim the vital secret Flynne stole.
