Get your first at Netflix’s stunning new sci-fi series Altered Carbon in this trailer, starring Dichen Lachman, Joel Kinnaman and Renée Elise Goldsberry.
Based on Richard K. Morgan’s 2002 cyberpunk novel of the same name, Altered Carbon is a futuristic sci-fi series tackling humanity’s quest for immortality.
In this universe, (rich) people can have their consciousness stored on digital implants, and when they die, they are given new bodies known as ‘sleeves.’
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The concept might remind you of the Joss Whedon 2009 series Dollhouse, particularly the episode in which a dead woman attempts to solve her own murder, having had her consciousness implanted into the body of main character Echo (Eliza Dushku).
This association wouldn’t be far off, considering that both series star Dichen Lachman in a leading role!
Lachman plays Reileen Kawahara, whose brother Takeshi Kovacs (Will Yun Lee) is imprisoned, has his consciousness transferred, and wakes up in a new body —
that of Joel Kinnaman — centuries later.
In Carbon, too, a dead person is trying to solve their own murder: in fact, Kovacs is awoken to help solve it, by the wealthy mogul Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy).
Also starring is Hamilton‘s Renée Elise Goldsberry as Quell, the leader of a group of elite interstellar warriors, and Matrha Higareda as detective Kristin Ortega.
The series is created by Shutter Island‘s Laeta Kalogridis, with the pilot directed by Miguel Sapochnik (who helmed Game of Thrones‘ spectacular “Battle of the Bastards” episode).
In an Entertainment Weekly interview, Kalogridis says of the series:
“It’s very different than what else is out in this space. There’s some Philip K. Dick in there, William Gibson, obviously Ridley Scott, and actually some Orson Welles and John Huston. We tried to imagine what a potential globalized future on Earth would look like, with a certain amount of technological change, a certain amount of technological familiarity and a very large degree of human familiarity.”
Altered Carbon debuts on Netflix on February 2, 2018.
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