Snowpiercer TV series releases its first official images

Snowpiercer, TBS’s long-gestating TV series adaptation of the comic-book-based 2013 film starring Chris Evans, has been on a delay-plagued developmental track that’s almost as interminable as the one on which its titular locomotive rides. However, after the surprising recent news that the project – long set for TNT – had hopped Turner-owned tracks to TBS, and an even more surprising preemptive renewal for Season 2, the first substantive glimpse of the series has arrived.

Ahead of Snowpiercer’s Comic-Con panel, scheduled for Saturday, a trio of photos from the series has, at long last, lifted the veil ever so slightly on the long-languishing television series. The images, which arrive exclusive to Entertainment Weekly, show us the primary characters of the series.

The first one, visible below in the embedded tweet, focus on primary characters Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly) and Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs), two individuals who, in the context of the class-divided train, have personalities and backgrounds that could not be more different.

Melanie, who resides in the upper-class portion of the society-housing vehicle, serves as “The Voice of the Train,” responsible for making announcements. However, she has a burning curiosity about how the other half lives, which will put her in the middle of the show’s caste-based struggles. By contrast, Andre lives amongst the train’s steerage section, and, while known to have a philosopher’s mind, spends his time sniffing drugs from industrial waste and doting over his caged pet rats.

The second picture, which you can view on EW, shows Diggs’ Andre, clearly in the snow-ridden steerage portion of the train, joined by a character named Zarah Farami (Sheila Vand). Finally the third image makes the class contrast as clear as possible, showing Connelly’s Melanie in formal business attire, leaning back against a beautiful bar that, in all likelihood, only has top-shelf stuff, even in its bottom shelves.

Connelly and Diggs are joined by a large ensemble consisting of names like Mickey Sumner, Alison Wright, Iddo Goldberg, Susan Park, Sam Otto, Lena Hall, Katie McGuinness, Annalise Basso and a lot more. Interestingly Steven Ogg and Rowan Blanchard are also amongst the Season 1 cast as recurring players, but the news cycle effectively spoiled their survival, since they have both already received promotions to the main cast upon the early Season 2 renewal.

Snowpiercer adapts a story originated from the 1982 French graphic novel, Le Transperceneige, by authors Jacques Lob, Jean-Marc Rochette and Benjamin Legrand. It would be adapted as a film by South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, 2013’s Snowpiercer, which – released in the U.S. in July 2014 – gave headliner Chris Evans a thematically different respite from his stars-and-striped gig as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Captain America. The film also gained some acclaim, notably attributed to the performance of co-star Tilda Swinton.

Snowpiercer has yet to reveal a release date, but that could change after its San Diego Comic-Con panel. The event, featuring showrunner Graeme Manson, joined by the main cast, is set for the Indigo Ballroom on Saturday, July 20 at 3 p.m. local.

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