First trailer for Amazon's Utopia series shows a world on the edge of breakdown

"What have you done today to earn your place in this crowded world?"

Those lines from Dr. Kevin Christie (John Cusack) are the first words spoken in the trailer for Amazon's new series Utopia. Although sound vaguely motivational, they make a creepy contrast with the scenes that follow in the trailer: Natural disasters, bombs exploding, mysterious mercenaries, and Dr. Michael Stearns (Rainn Wilson) intoning gravely about a "viral pandemic." Clearly, this is a world teetering on the edge of breakdown. Look familiar?

Utopia is based on the 2013 British series of the same name, and they share a focus on a titular comic book that some devoted fans believe is predicting things about the real world. There are some changes to the American version, which is written by showrunner Gillian Flynn (Sharp Objects). One of those changes is the addition of Dr. Christie, a tech billionaire whose new fake-meat product may have something to do with the pandemic that Stearns is obsessing over.

The trailer debuted as part of the Comic-Con@Home virtual panel for Utopia featuring Flynn, Cusack, Wilson, Sasha Lane, Ashleigh LaThrop, Dan Byrd, Desmin Borges, Javon “Wanna” Walton, and Jessica Rothe. Watch that below.

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