Showtime on Thursday released
first-look images from Fellow Travelers, the network's
upcoming gay political drama.
In the eight-part limited series set to
premiere this fall, Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton) and Matt
Bomer (White Collar) play lovers.
“A secret romance spanning decades
that could unravel everything,” Showtime captioned the images on
social
media.
Based on the Thomas Mallon novel of the
same name, Fellow Travelers opens in 1950s Washington –
where Timothy Laughlin (played by Bailey) and Hawkins Fuller (Bomer)
are forced to hide their love affair as GOP Senator Joseph McCarthy
and lawyer Roy Cohn declare war on “subversives and sexual
deviants” – and spans four decades.
Speaking with Vanity Fair,
Bailey said he'd wanted to do a “sweeping gay love story, but my
experience actually was that I'd never really seen them. Or if I had,
I hadn't seen actors like me and Matt play those roles.”
Bailey and Bomer are openly gay.
Bailey described the gay sex scenes as
a “meticulous examination of power.”
“The nuance of a complicated,
volatile queer relationship is the power balance – and that is what
is amazing about Tim and Hawk,” he
said. “There's a level of trust and intimacy that's even more
valuable when society is against you. You keep your secrets
together.”
Rounding out the cast are Allison
Williams, Jelani Alladin, and Noah J. Ricketts.