The opening episode of new Sky thriller The Lazarus Project not only features a reference to the COVID-19 crisis, but also depicts a second devastating pandemic sweeping the globe.<\/p>\n
It might surprise you to learn, then, that the series was originally conceived by writer Joe Barton (Giri\/Haji) before the real-life pandemic hit, with the outbreak on-screen only reimagined as a second pandemic in rewrites.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite old, really \u2013 maybe six years or something,\u201d Barton revealed to RadioTimes.com<\/a>. \u201c<\/span>It was pre-pandemic, all of it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was weird to have written something set in a pandemic and then to find ourselves filming it in the height of lockdown\u2026 we added a line about coronavirus in.\u201d<\/span><\/p> The series follows George (Paapa Essiedu), an app developer recruited by the Lazarus Project, a shadowy organisation that harnesses the ability to rewind time to prevent mass extinction events.<\/p>\n Barton therefore conceived of humanity being hit by a pandemic before the real-life coronavirus pandemic had begun in 2019 \u2013 and this wasn\u2019t the only real-life event that his story anticipated.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s quite a lot in the show which has since come true\u2026 there was a lot of stuff about Russia and Ukraine in later episodes, which we had to go back and change after the fact, just because of everything that\u2019s happened. A lot of these predictions came true in quite a spooky way. It was surreal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Though time-loop stories have proven popular in fiction in everything from Groundhog Day to Russian Doll, Barton says his desire with the drama was \u201cto try and find a slightly new angle on a familiar sub-genre\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe idea started more with the end of the world aspect of it\u2026 I\u2019d read some articles about nuclear war near-misses\u2026 I was interested in how close we\u2019d got to accidental annihilation, or not-accidental annihilation \u2013 like the Cuban Missile Crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got so close to these disastrous events, but they haven\u2019t happened, which seems odd given the human race\u2019s propensity for disaster and catastrophe, so the idea spun from\u2026 what if it actually has<\/em> happened and we\u2019ve undone it? <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat big idea came first and then it was all about how we put more constraints and rules and interesting ideas around time travel, and time loops particularly, and exploring the moral questions that we can end up asking with them, and hopefully it fits into that pantheon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Also starring Anjli Mohindra (Vigil), Tom Burke (Strike), Caroline Quentin (Men Behaving Badly) and Charly Clive (Pure), The Lazarus Project is produced by Urban Myth Films, with Merlin\u2019s Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy involved as executive producers.<\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>Why The Lazarus Project is Breaking Bad with time travel<\/a><\/p>\n The Lazarus Project will be available to watch from Thursday (16th June) on Sky TV and NOW \u2013\u00a0sign up for Sky TV here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0and get the next 12 issues for only \u00a31. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a>\u00a0with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Morgan Jeffery Published: Thursday, 16 June 2022 at 12:00 am Warning: contains spoilers for The Lazarus Project episode 1 The opening episode of new Sky thriller The Lazarus Project not only features a reference to the COVID-19 crisis, but also depicts a second devastating pandemic sweeping the globe. It might surprise you to learn, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":17032,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/how-the-lazarus-project-predicted-the-future-it-was-surreal.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/how-the-lazarus-project-predicted-the-future-it-was-surreal-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/how-the-lazarus-project-predicted-the-future-it-was-surreal-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/how-the-lazarus-project-predicted-the-future-it-was-surreal.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/how-the-lazarus-project-predicted-the-future-it-was-surreal.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/how-the-lazarus-project-predicted-the-future-it-was-surreal.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/06\/how-the-lazarus-project-predicted-the-future-it-was-surreal.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Morgan Jeffery Published: Thursday, 16 June 2022 at 12:00 am Warning: contains spoilers for The Lazarus Project episode 1 The opening episode of new Sky thriller The Lazarus Project not only features a reference to the COVID-19 crisis, but also depicts a second devastating pandemic sweeping the globe. 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