This October, a new thriller starring Josh Hartnett is coming to Netflix. The streamer released a trailer for Below, a limited series from Jesse McKeown (The Umbrella Academy) and Jessica Rhoades (Black Mirror).
The new series, set to premiere on Oct. 8, stars Hartnett alongside Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things) and Mackenzie Davis (Speak No Evil). The six-part mini-series takes place in Newfoundland, Canada, where a mysterious entity lurks beneath the ocean.
What Is Below About?
In Below, Josh Hartnett plays Calvin, a fisherman in a small town rife with sudden strange events. In the new trailer for the show, the town appears to be under attack by some kind of sea monster, and it’s up to Calvin to figure out what’s going on and keep the townspeople safe. Meanwhile, Calvin’s son, Wade (Heaton), begins exhibiting some strange symptoms. Calvin then teams up with Fonda (Davis), a marine biologist, to solve the mystery of the underwater creature. Davis called the show “funny and scary and smart and propulsive.”
Below‘s setting is somewhat reminiscent of Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay, which takes place in a similar small island town where strange events begin to occur. The two shows seem to have a lot in common.
For starters, both Widow’s Bay and Below feature threats directly connected to water and a protagonist in a leadership position who is determined to save the town. And both protagonists are trying to save their sons in the process. Widow’s Bay has been a huge success for Apple TV, garnering 19 Emmy nominations. The show has also had high viewership and has been a hit with both critics and fans, which bodes well for Netflix’s new series.
The Cast Immersed Themselves in Newfoundland Culture
Below was shot on location in Newfoundland, allowing the cast to really immerse themselves into the local culture. Show creator McKeown called Newfoundland “such a unique landscape and so rugged, dangerous, isolated, and scary in a lot of ways.” He told Tudum, “There’s also this other side to [Newfoundland] — the community is so warm, and the people are so funny, and there are many eccentricities about the place.”
Hartnett practiced the regional accent by listening to a local Newfoundland radio station in which fishermen talked about their daily lives. Meanwhile, Heaton went to bars just outside St. John’s, Newfoundland’s capital, to get a sense of the culture and the people.
“When you meet Newfoundlanders, they want to bring you in, and they want to look after you,” Heaton said. “I remember one day, my driver say, ‘Let me know if you want me to bring supper around later. I live down the road.'”
Instead of using green screens, filming took place on the ocean so that they could capture real-life water scenes. Heaton said, “We were out with the Coast Guard on the water, driving these boats, and I’m actually out in the ocean kayaking. I’ve done a lot of work on practical locations in Stranger Things, but I’ve never been out on the ocean like that, which is insane.”
Hartnett was immediately drawn to the story, he tells Tudum, saying, “I read the first two scripts in less than an hour. The voice was so clear, the concept was so engaging, and the character was fantastic. I’d never read anything like it before.”
Below comes out on Netflix on Oct. 8.