Heels and Vikings alum Alexander Ludwig says he wanted to star in Earth Abides because the limited series is a realistic look at what could happen after a cataclysmic pandemic.
Premiering Sunday on MGM+, the adaptation of George Stewart's novel follows Ish (Ludwig), a geologist and one of the few survivors of a global disaster, who, after several years alone, finds a mate in Emma (Jessica Frances Dukes).
"You hear 'post-apocalyptic' and you think zombies and monsters, right? And to me, this is the most true of what would actually happen in a post-apocalyptic scenario," Ludwig, 32, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
"It's about finding purpose and and meaning and it's about people. The monsters lie within and it's about humanity and what really matters at the end of the day when everything else is stripped away," he said. "Those are the kind of themes that we get to deal with. I love the idea of what happens if we become a primitive species again. How do we rebuild and can we get it right?"
Ozark and The Gilded Age actress Dukes, 34, said she fell in love with this series the minute she read the script for the first episode.
"The way that Todd Komarnicki writes is so poetic. It's so beautiful. The imagery was so clear in my mind," Dukes said.
"And then after being through a [real] pandemic and, also, just sort of experiencing solitude in a way, you really do imagine yourself in the world and it just came to life in a way that," she added. "So, I actually said 'yes' before I read the second episode. I was like, 'I'm in!' Anybody who writes like this, I want to work with them."
The cast also includes Aaron Tveit, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll, Elyse Levesque and Luisa D'Oliveira.