In a new interview with Variety, Academy Award winning writer Jordan Peele confirmed that the new Twilight Zone series, the third revival of the classic anthology series, will feature somebody in the role of the host that Rod Sterling previously held in the original 1959 version.
Though the series will feature a host, Peele also discussed that no one has filled the role and that he himself is resisting taking it, as his face is so well associated with comedy that he worries it would take away from the more serious tone of the show. However, the Get Out director hasn’t fully ruled it out yet either.
“The realization, for me, was that it was an opportunity to attempt to continue with Serling’s mission,” Peele said. “If we approach it without ego and sort of bow to Serling, that will hopefully suffice for our fellow Twilight Zone fans but also bring back a show that I think is needed right now. Because it’s a show that has always helped us look at ourselves, hold a mirror up to society.”
Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone series will be produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions and Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films. Jordan Peele, Simon Kinberg, and Marco Ramirez will serve as executive producers for the series and collaborate on the premiere episode. Win Rosenfeld and Audrey Chon will also serve as executive producers. Production begins on the series later this year.
The original The Twilight Zone took viewers to another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. Created by Rod Serling, it was a journey into a wondrous land of imagination for five years on CBS, from 1959-1964. The godfather of sci-fi series, the show explored humanity’s hopes, despairs, prides and prejudices in metaphoric ways conventional drama could not. In 1983 Steven Spielberg produced a big budget anthology film version, Twilight Zone: The Movie, directed by Spielberg, John Landis, Joe Dante and George Miller. The show was revived by CBS in the 1980s and ran for three seasons, helmed by the likes of William Friedkin, Atom Egoyan and Wes Craven. It was revived again on UPN and hosted by Forest Whitaker in 2002 for one season. Another revival was attempted in 2012 with Bryan Singer (X-Men: Days of Future Past), who was to develop, executive produce and direct.
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