What to Expect from Jordan Peele’s ‘Twilight Zone’ Reboot

This year’s best Super Bowl commercial wasn’t trying to sell your beer or convince you to buy a new car. It was a teaser for a revival of a classic science fiction anthology show from the 1960s.

At first, the ad seemed like a return to the game after a commercial. After a couple of glitches and an ominous message – “CBS Is Off the Air” – the video returns to an eerily empty Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Comedian Jordan Peele appears, asking, “When truth is not the truth, what dimension are you even in?” He steps through a door in the middle of the field and disappears. Then the theme from The Twilight Zone plays, and the show’s logo appears on screen.

The new Twilight Zone premieres April 1

On the new Twilight Zone, Peele will step into the role formerly filled by Rod Serling, the creator and host of the show that originally aired from 1959 to 1964. (Earlier reboots happened in the mid-1980s and early 2000s.) An impressive roster of actors have signed on to appear in the show, including Steven Yeun, Adam Scott, Kumail Nanjiani, Greg Kinnear, John Cho, and Rhea Seehorn, but we don’t know much yet about the characters they’ll play or the plots of different episodes.

The reboot premieres on April 1 on CBS All Access, the network’s streaming platform. The show will debut with two episodes, and new episodes will be released weekly on Thursdays starting April 11.

At least one episode will be inspired by the original show

While information about the new Twilight Zone is scant, we do know that the series will likely reimagine one of the best-known episodes from the original show: “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” In that episode, an airplane passenger (played by William Shatner) is tormented by a strange creature that no one else sees. Adam Scott will star in the updated version, titled “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet.”

Another episode, “Rewind,” may be inspired by the episode of the same title from the 2000s revival, according to Vanity Fair.

Peele’s upcoming movie is also inspired by The Twilight Zone

In addition to The Twilight Zone, the Get Out director has a new movie coming out. Us hits theaters March 22. The movie is the story of a family who are forced to confront their doppelgangers. The idea came partly from The Twilight Zone episode “Mirror Image,” where a woman encounters her doppelganger at a bus station, Peele explained in an interview with Rolling Stone.   

In addition to “Mirror Image,” Peele has named “To Serve Man,” “Living Doll,” “A Kind of Stopwatch,” and “The Invaders” his favorite original Twilight Zone episodes.

Carrying on the legacy of The Twilight Zone

The original Twilight Zone was groundbreaking in the way it used science fiction to explore social and political themes. Viewers can expect the reboot to take a similar approach.

“Too many times this year it’s felt we were living in a twilight zone, and I can’t think of a better moment to reintroduce it to modern audiences,” Peele said in a 2017 statement when the reboot was announced.

In another statement, Peele noted that “Rod Serling was an uncompromising visionary who not only shed light on social issues of his time, but prophesied issues of ours. I’m honored to carry on his legacy to a new generation of audiences as the gatekeeper of The Twilight Zone.”

You can watch all episodes of the original Twilight Zone on Netflix, Hulu, and CBS All Access.

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