The latest Apple TV+ anthology drama series is tackling the climate crisis with the help of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Alongside high-profile protests, many of us have David Attenborough and his iconic Blue Planet and Planet Earth docuseries to thank for helping open our eyes to the urgency of climate change.
Environmental issues are so often explored through hard-hitting documentaries, but this new Apple TV+ series is tapping into the budding genre of climate dramas on our screens.
Extrapolations, an eight-part anthology series, will be joining the likes of BBC’s The Trick, Disney’s dystopian parable Y: The Last Man and films like Keira Knightley’s dark drama Silent Night, all of which explore the climate crisis in an alternative and essential, but often darkly comic, way.
Here’s everything we know about the drama, which is currently in production, so far.
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What is the plot of Extrapolations?
According to Deadline, Extrapolations is an anthology drama examining how impending changes to the planet will affect love, faith, work and family in people’s lives.
Apple has described it as “a bracing limited series that introduces a near future where the chaotic effects of climate change have become embedded into our everyday lives.
“Eight interwoven stories about love, work, faith and family from across the globe will explore the intimate, life-altering choices that must be made when the planet is changing faster than the population. Every story is different, but the fight for our future is universal. Are we brave enough to become the solution to our own undoing before it’s too late?”
In the recently released trailer, we get our first glimpse of the eight different stories, which appear to take place in the next few decades, as dates flash onto the screen.
Blackish’s Yara Shahidi appears as a hologram, seemingly inciting a large crowd to take action for the planet, while another snippet shows the island of Manhattan surrounded by flood defences as a result of climate change.
Matthew Rhys’s character seems to be a wealthy climate change denier, telling his associate that “we’ll be smiling in gold-plated coffins” by the time that the impact can be felt.
Climate change is a notoriously difficult topic to engage TV audiences in. However, the upcoming series has pulled together a seriously stellar cast to help grab our attention.
Who stars in Extrapolations?
Crazy Rich Asians and Eternals star Gemma Chan and none other than Meryl Streep will appear in the upcoming series, alongside the likes of Sienna Miller, Kit Harington, Daveed Diggs and David Schwimmer.
Along with Shahidi and Rhys, they’ll be joined by Hari Nef, Tahar Rahim and White Tiger’s Adarsh Gourav.
What’s more, Apple has already released some details about the characters they will be taking on.
Harington will play Nick Bilton, the CEO of an industrial giant, a character we expect to be reminiscent of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
Chan will play Natasha Alper, a single mother and micro-finance banker, with Miller taking a role as an environmentally concerned marine biologist named Rebecca Shearer.
Schwimmer will play Harris Goldblatt, a man with a teenage daughter undoubtedly concerned for his child’s future, with Gourav appearing as a driver for hire named Gaurav.
Diggs will play Marshall Zucker, a rabbi in South Florida, while Streep’s role has not yet been disclosed.
Sounds like a whole host of interesting and complex characters for us to meet.
What are people saying about Extrapolations?
Scott Z Burns, the screenwriter behind movies like The Bourne Ultimatum and Contagion, is on board as writer, director and executive producer.
Speaking about the ambitious project, he told The Wrap: “The only thing we know for sure about the future is that we are all going there together – and we’re taking with us our hopes, our fears, our appetites, our creativity, our capacity for love and our predilection to cause pain.”
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“These are the same tools that storytellers have been using since the beginning of time. Our show is just using them to keep time from running out.”
When will Extrapolations be available to watch?
The first three episodes are set to premiere on Apple TV+ on 17 March, with one new episode then following every Friday until 21 April.
Images: Apple
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