Showtime Promises 'Epic Gay Love Story' With 'Fellow Travelers'

Billed as an epic gay love story taking place across the backdrop of four volatile decades in American history, Showtime’s upcoming limited series Fellow Travelers promises a riveting blend of tumultuous romance and political intrigue. Picking up in the 1950s, the series will chart the fraught and passionate relationship between two closeted political officials against the backdrop of McCarthyism, the mounting gay rights movement through the 1970s and the AIDS epidemic.

For lead actors Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey, both of whom identify as gay, the project was a deeply meaningful one. “My answer was always, ‘Well, I’d love to do a sweeping gay love story,’ but my experience actually was that I’d never really seen them,” Bailey told Vanity Fair. “Or if I had, I hadn’t seen actors like me and Matt play those roles.”

Here are the key things to know about the upcoming miniseries.

Is Fellow Travelers based on a true story?

The storyline of Fellow Travelers is not based on a true story—it’s adapted from the 2007 historical novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon. Set in 1950s Washington D.C., the novel follows the love affair between a State Department official, Hawkins Fuller, and a young Senate staffer, Timothy Laughlin.

Although the central plot-line is fictional, the novel does chronicle a very real period in American history, and a critical one for the LGBTQ+ community. The book, and by extension the series, explores the “lavender scare” of the McCarthy era, which saw thousands of government officials suspected of being gay targeted as so-called security threats.

Here’s the full summary of the novel, per its publisher Penguin Random House:

Per Vanity Fair, the series will explore how Senator McCarthy, alongside his chief counsel Roy Cohn (whose own closeted history played a central role in another acclaimed gay epic, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America) fired scores of officials they deemed to be “sexually subversive,” laying the groundwork for a nationwide moral panic around homosexuality. The series will conclude during the 1980s, as the AIDS epidemic took hold.

Related: 65 of the Best Movies Based on True Stories—Must-Watch Movies From History

Is Fellow Travelers based on a book?

Fellow Travelers is based on a historical novel by Thomas Mallon and was adapted for TV by Ron Nyswaner, who’s best known for writing the Oscar-nominated screenplay for 1993’s Philadelphia, and more recently the Harry Styles-starring gay drama My Policeman.

Nyswaner has been developing the project for years, and told Entertainment Weekly that the series deviates significantly from Mallon’s book, which doesn’t span nearly as long of a period. The series will also feature a number of steamy and intimate sex scenes, for which Nyswaner had some very deliberate ground rules. One rule was that each sex scene had to move the story forward in some way, by exploring “the transference of power that happens between [the characters].” The second rule, he told EW, was that “we wouldn't do the same sexual act more than once, or the same combination… I remember when we were writing episode 8, my co-writers and I said, 'What haven't we done?'"

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Who is in the Fellow Travelers cast?

Matt Bomer as Hawkins Fuller

Fuller is described as a handsome, charismatic war hero turned rising political star who makes a point of avoiding emotional entanglements—that is, until he meets Tim Laughlin.

Jonathan Bailey as Tim Laughlin

Played by Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey, Tim is “brimming with idealism and religious faith,” searching for his own way into the Washington power machine.

“The nuance of a complicated, volatile queer relationship is the power balance—and that is what is amazing about Tim and Hawk," Bailey told VF. "Every single sex scene is a meticulous examination of power.”

Related: Everything to Know About 'Bridgerton' Season 3

Alison Williams as Lucy Smith

The Girls star portrays Lucy Smith, a senator’s daughter and childhood friend of Hawkins, whom he marries to keep up appearances.

Chris Bauer as Senator McCarthy

Chris Bauer, known for his work on The Wire and True Blood, takes on the role of Senator McCarthy.

Linus Roache as Senator Wesley Smith

Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU alum Linus William Roache plays Senator Wesley Smith, who is a mentor to Hawkins.

Will Brill as Roy Cohn

Will Brill, who you may have seen in The OA, is McCarthy's closeted chief counsel Roy Cohn.

Jelani Alladin as Marcus Hooks

Best known for his stage work, having originated the role of Kristoff in the Frozen musical on Broadway in 2018, Jelani Alladin plays queer Black political journalist Marcus Hooks.

The ensemble also features Noah J. Ricketts as Frankie Hines, Erin Neufer as Mary Johnson, Matt Visser as David Schine, Christine Horne as Jean Kerr and David Tomlinson as Eddie Kofler.

What is the Fellow Travelers release date?

Fellow Travelers will premiere on Showtime on Sunday, Oct. 29. The first episode will be available two days ahead of that, on Oct. 27, streaming on Paramount+ via the platform’s “with Showtime” plan. The show will premiere on Oct. 27 in Canada, and Oct. 28 in the UK, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Australia, Latin America and South Korea.

Is there a trailer for Fellow Travelers?

Showtime released the full trailer for Fellow Travelers in early October.

How many episodes are in Fellow Travelers?

There are eight episodes in the limited series.

How to watch Fellow Travelers

All eight episodes of the series will air weekly on Showtime on Sunday nights, and will be available concurrently via Paramount+.

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