ghost wars Small town, big ghost problem
SEASON 1 US BROADCAST: Syfy from 20 October UK BROADCAST: TBC
DON’t bE miSlEd by tHE titlE – Syfy’S Ghost Wars Will be about more than just boss battles between opposing forces from the spirit realm. “it’s a war of ghosts but it’s also a war of ideas: our ideas about what the afterlife is and what that other side is,” explains the show’s young lead, Avan Jogia. Jogia plays Roman mercer, a medium who lives in the rural Alaskan backwater of Port moore. mercer is an outsider among outsiders who suddenly becomes the most popular man in town when the residents are attacked by spectral phenomena. Among the accursed is the local priest, played by Vincent d’Onofrio, and the town bully, aka meat loaf.
Ghost Wars is the second supernatural project in a row that showrunner Simon barry has worked on for Syfy, having been approached to develop the series after working alongside Neil labute on Van helsing’s first season. the creator of Continuum hasn’t completely left sci-fi behind, though. He says that Ghost Wars will have “a science component, a religious component and a paranormal component”.
barry points to the shining, John Carpenter and Sam Raimi as influences. meanwhile, the trailer for Ghost Wars suggests a mix of classic and modern horror tropes.
“We run the gamut,” Jogia confirms. Still, he insists that paranormal activity won’t be the series’ main theme.
“it’s a show about faith in science, in your abilities and in your personality. it’s a large debate about what happens after. And it’s fucking fun.”