What would you do for love? Would you travel across time for it? Embrace all its complications and hardships for a moment, a sliver of peace and happiness? That is the question raised in HBO’s newest series, The Time Traveler’s Wife, coming this spring.

This science-fiction romantic drama, which is a reboot of a 2009 film of the same title, is set to further explore the story and give audiences the details the film forgot or could not fully provide. Although the 2009 retelling did its best and was a commercial success, earning $101 million at the US Box Office, the new series offers a chance to tell more of the story. Like with any book-to-screen adaptation, things get lost in the transfer, or it just isn’t feasible to fit 600 pages into 107 minutes, no matter how well done it is.

The series has a stacked cast and an impressive arsenal of producers at the helm. Since its first trailer, which premiered only a week ago, the series seems to be garnering quite an audience already. The mysterious and intriguing love story is certainly one for the books or rather a certain book in particular. Let’s find out everything we know so far.

The Plot

     HBO

The Time Traveler’s Wife was a book before it was a film and a soon-to-be series. The 600-page novel of the same name was written by author Audrey Niffenegger in 2003. Instantly, readers were captured by the story of a man, Henry DeTamble, whose time-traveling affliction seemed to have only one constant – love. Throughout his travels, he always came back to the love of his life, Clare Abshire. From the time she was young, he visited her, only for them both to meet up later in life and pursue a romantic relationship and later marriage and a family. The story, although on the surface a love story, is one of complications, tragedy, and the idea that the small moments are what is important to live a full life.

The Cast & Crew

When it comes to the cast of the fresh-take series, it doesn’t leave much room for wanting. While it’s no Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, it certainly has a cast worthy of their own hype. Theo James takes the lead as the mysterious time-traveling Henry DeTamble. James has been on the scene for quite some time, earning praise from his role in the Divergent series, based on the book saga of the same name. This role made him quite the heartthrob amongst teen fans who have undoubtedly grown and followed the actor’s career and are looking forward to his current role. But James is not the only actor that fans will recognize. Taking on the role as the smart and romantic counterpart to James’ DeTamble will be Rose Leslie as Clare Abshire. Leslie was a big hit in HBO’s Game of Thrones as Ygritte, the wildling that stole John Snow’s heart, amongst other things…wink wink. Together the two showcase an amazing amount of chemistry in the trailer for the series and will be joined by fellow actors Desmin Borges, Jaime Ray Newman, Kate Siegel, and others.

But the cast is not the only part of the series that stands out. The people behind the camera also hold their own when it comes to the incredible feat of taking on the series. The series was written by the incredible Steven Moffat, whom time-travel fans might know from his work as the writer, showrunner, and executive producer of a little show called Doctor Who and Sherlock. Moffat is joined by David Nutter, who directed all six episodes of the upcoming series. Nutter has done extensive work on shows like Arrow, Deception, The Flash, and even Game of Thrones, where he was nominated and received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. Nutter also had a history of directing pilot episodes that led to many long fruitful series – a pattern of sixteen pilots from 1995 to 2010 – until the streak ended in 2011 when his pilot for CBS’ The Doctor was not picked up. He would go on to direct the pilot episodes for both Arrow, The Flash, not a bad rebound.

The Release Date

The upcoming sci-fi romance series will be airing sometime this May on HBO and the company’s streaming service HBO Max.

Everything Else to Know

There are many fans of the initial film and book that are voicing their concerns that the series might not be successful in its attempt at furthering the story of Henry DeTamble and Clare Abshire’s love, but writer Steven Moffat isn’t as worried. The writer tried to put the worries to rest when he gave a statement at HBO’s virtual TCA press day on February 15th, saying, “we’re not messing around with the stuff that really matters.”

He also voiced his love for the route of story-telling the show will take saying, “by scrambling it all up and constantly reminding you that love is inextricably linked to loss, which is a cheery thought, you make this very common phenomenon of a happy marriage, thrilling and full of attention and tragedy.” However, he does want the audience to understand that while “this is a story of loss” it is most definitely “not [solely] a tragedy.”