For the past year, Freeform (formerly known as ABC Family) has been developing new content to match its early 2016 rebranding. In what looks like an attempt to get with the times, the historically Christian channel has been attempting to introduce more diverse characters into their teen/young adult-oriented content. Fantasy drama Shadowhunters, for instance, features an interracial gay couple, while horror homage Dead of Summer dealt with issues of race, mental illness, and LGBT identity. Whether or not these depictions of diversity are necessarily the best, they make Freeform's new mission clear: Produce TV content that features teenage characters of all kinds.
The show's latest effort, Beyond, shows the channel's particular dedication to branching out, genre-wise. The drama, which follows teen Holden Matthews after he awakens from a 12-year coma, introduces viewers to a world of secret superhumans and life-threatening conspiracy. Though Freeform has been promoting the show via short promo clips for some weeks now, they finally just premiered a full-length trailer that really gives us a concrete idea of the show.
The latest trailer for Beyond quickly introduces us to Holden's backstory, before unleashing a world of questions about who is who and what is what in the teenager's world. Check it out, above, and don't miss the epic slow-motion fight clip.
If you're a sci-fi/fantasy fan, it's likely you recognize protagonist Holden, played by Burkley Duffield. The Canadian actor recently starred in Warcraft as Callan Lothar, son of Anduin. Female lead Dilan Gwyn is no stranger to the genre as well, sporting recent credits in TV show Da Vinci's Demons and the 2014 film Dracula Untold. As highlighted in the trailer, Beyond is also being helmed by some of the producers behind such TV hits as Heroes and Battlestar Galactica.
It can be hard to make genre work on TV, but this looks like a promising start. The trailer shows some impressive scenes, especially for Freeform, which is somewhat notorious for its low-budget aesthetic. That the channel is able to produce content that looks this good could mean promising things for fans of Marvel's Cloak and Dagger, which is slated to debut on Freeform. All in all, Beyond looks like an interesting foray into sci-fi that fans of shows like Stranger Things and Heroes should keep an eye on.
We hope that the overall writing for Beyond is as promising as this trailer. If so, Freeform could have a real hit on its hands -- one that will finally allow the channel to either break out of its niche or become the king of teen TV programming.
Beyond premieres Monday, January 2 at 9 pm EST on Freeform.
Source: Freeform [via YouTube]