What starts off looking like a beautiful dream turns into a terrifying nightmare in the first trailer for Lena Waithe’s (Master of None) upcoming Amazon Prime Video original series Them, via Entertainment Weekly. Set in 1950s America, the initial look at season one of the anthology series, subtitled Covenant, follows a Black family as they move into an all-white neighborhood in Compton, Los Angeles during The Great Migration period.
The series stars Deborah Ayorinde (Harriet) as Lucky and Ashley Thomas (Skin) as her husband Henry Emory. They move along with their two daughters Gracie and Ruby, portrayed by Melody Hurd (Trick) and Shahadi Wright Joseph (Us), from rural North Carolina to Compton in 1953. As they arrive, the idyllic American dream they’ve seemingly stepped into with its poodle skirts and blue skies quickly disappears as their neighbors and supernatural entities begin to terrorize and harass them. Season one will also co-star Alison Pill (American Horror Show: Cult) as a creepy housewife, who’s seen in the trailer sporting a terrifying red-lipped smile.
Waithe, the co-executive producer for Them, described what drove her to make a horror series which was picked up by Entertainment Weekly: “I’ve always been a genre fan…I love specifically psychological horror. I always wanted to put a black family, frankly, at the heart of the kinds of stories I love the most, the classic kinds of horror movies that I never saw us centered in.”
Waithe is an acclaimed screenwriter, producer, and actress. She’s created several television series, including the Showtime series The Chi, and the BET original series Twenties and Boomerang. Along with having recurring role on the Netflix original series Master of None, she also won an Emmy Award for writing the episode “Thanksgiving” in 2017. Alongside Them, Waithe is working on another series at Amazon Prime called Open, detailing an open marriage. Waithe additionally wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed 2019 film Queen & Slim.
Little Marvin (Jack & Jill) is the series creator and co-executive producer of Them. Both Marvin and Waithe serve as writers on the series. Miri Yoon (The Stand), Don Kurt (Amazing Stories), David Matthews (Vinyl), and Roy Lee (The Exorcist) also executive produce.
Watch the first trailer for Them: Covenant below: