Watch Trailers For The First Two Episodes Of ‘The Twilight Zone’ – Premiering On CBS All Access April 1st

The next show coming to CBS All Access is the revamped The Twilight Zone, executive produced and hosted by Oscar-winner Jordan Peele. The show debuts in one week, which is explicitly designed to help keep Star Trek: Discovery fans around after the second season wraps in the middle of April. Today CBS released trailers for the first two episodes, both of which arrive on April 1st. [Trailers are region-locked to USA only]

“Nightmare at 30,000 Feet”

Starring Adam Scott, “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” is inspired by—but is not a remake of—the original The Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” which starred William Shatner.

“The Comedian”

The other episode debuting the same day is “The Comedian,” starring Kumail Nanjiani and Tracy Morgan.

Enter another dimension next Monday

The Twilight Zone premieres with two episodes on Monday, April 1. Following the series premiere, subsequent episodes will be released on Thursdays beginning April 11, exclusively for CBS All Access subscribers in the USA. There is no new information about international availability.

In case you missed it, here is the series trailer that came out last month.


Keep up with The Twilight Zone news here at TrekMovie.com.

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The Twilight Zone is very similar to Black Mirror on Netflix. I love anthology shows. I’m watching this after Star Trek: Discovery is over. Black Mirror doesn’t have a host tho, that’s the difference. Interesting episodes. CBS is some good shows now, The Twilight Zone and the upcoming Star Trek Picard show.

There were more differences than that in the original. Classic TZ had some variety in tone and subject matter. It wasn’t always dark, and it wasn’t always set during modern times; some episodes were set during the Civil War and Old West for example.

Another difference is that TZ had a broad commitment to cultural critique and social justice, crossed with a deep hope for humanity’s potential as well as its failings, that made it ahead of its time and very daring for 60s network television. I love Black Mirror but it has struggled to move beyond a lot of similar “technology brings out the evil in people” storylines, which I feel is magnified by how few episodes there are to begin with.

The new TZ is in good hands, btw.

Good hands indeed!

Holden you are right about Black Mirror. The show focuses on the technology bits too much. Season 4 was really good and Bandersnatch. TZ and Star Trek have one thing in common, they both influence pop culture in a powerful way.

I like Black Mirror, but I’m worried it’s already conditioned a lot of people into thinking that anthology shows have to be dark and depressing.

The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits and their successors were not always so. Even Alfred Hitchcock Presents was not always dark (though even the “funny” ones had Hitchcock’s brand of dark humor).

The 90’s Outer Limits was actually quite good at times, though my memory was that it was usually a bit dark and brooding in most episodes. Tales from the Darkside (not Tales from the Crypt) is probably a pretty decent match to the kind of person who really likes Black Mirror, though that show had a definitive horror setting.

Unfortunately I can’t vouch for any of the other anthology shows that are currently airing right now, such as “Lore” and “Electric Dreams” to know for certain what kind of template those shows use.

Yep, I hope this version of TZ doesn’t go too dark and oppressive feeling, that’s what Black Mirror is for…

I do have hope that they understand what makes TZ unique. This video from PaleyFest gives me hope that they get it — that TZ often has a dry wit to it and has an almost comedic take on its view of people and society.

https://youtu.be/_V5UEZGQKbE

Wheelie.

As long as they don’t try any more Mr Bevis we’ll be fine! ;) Having watched the entire original run, there’s tremendous variety of style and tone. People inevitably latch on to the creepy episodes, but there’s tremendous wit in many stories. Some are lighter than others. Serling’s pet theme was ‘You can’t go home again,’ seen in many stories such as Walking Distance and Night Gallery’s They’re Tearing Down Tom Riley’s Bar. I’m in my mid-40s now and those stories pack a punch they didn’t when I was even in my 30s. They just show how great Serling was.

I’m really glad the Adam Scott episode isn’t a direct remake. I was wary of them doing remakes but this looks good.

Having seen US a couple nights ago, I *know* Jordan Peele is the perfect choice to helm this. The guy knows his allegory.

Like “Get Out” before it, “Us” may as well be a TZ movie. Great stuff. I hope the series is a big hit; I have a feeling it might do more for All Access even than Discovery has.

He knows how to make a good horror movie.

Trek and TZ have a long, intertwined history, both culturally and industrially. Plus the article specifically states that part of the CBS push with TZ is to hold onto Trek fans after Disco ends, which makes sense given the overlap. Not hard to understand at all.

This Star Trek fan isn’t going to stick around for it. I like TZ and will watch it while Trek is on. But come April 19th, the service will be canceled until the Picard show starts. That is part of the perils of streaming. There is no need to keep the service if you plan to pick it up later. Your shows will still be there waiting for you. No need to keep paying in the interim.

Exactly, ML.

You have a brand new show in the anthology format where you can get as creative and as imaginative as you want and you choose to “loosely” remake one of the best original episodes? I would have preferred it if they went fully original with this show, but I guess full originality and creativity died sometime in the mid 2000’s.

The author never wrote anything about “loosely.” And it makes sense to start a new version of an iconic show with an episode “inspired by” one of its most well known episodes. Homages and creative originality are not mutually exclusive, especially as Hollywood studios and TV networks have been recycling the same properties since at least the mid-20th Century.

Not the eighties, when the episode was actually remade? Or the sixties, when the episode was cravenly adapted from an existing short story by the very guy — THE VERY GUY! — who’d written it the first time?

This is exactly my point though, they remade this story in almost every incarnation of the Twilight Zone, including the movie version. Yes, it is a good story, but do we really need to see it again and again, unless they say something new with it. This is actually the reason why I didn’t want Spock and The Enterprise in Discovery in the first place, because I wanted to see more original stories with the Discovery crew and get to know them first before jumping on the familiar bandwagon. I guess they need to have something to instantly connect the show with the older versions otherwise they feel like they are not doing the show justice, but I just feel like having two-three season in the can is more ideal before going to the remake bandwagon.

What makes you think nothing new is being done with it? That’s by no means a certainty. And even if nothing new IS being done with it, what’s the downside to aiming a show like this at younger audiences who almost certainly have little to no familiarity with the original TZ?

For what it’s worth, I was dead set against Spock being on DSC, too. Still mostly am, although I’ve kind of enjoyed Ethan Peck in the role.

Ethan Peck lives up to the hype. I like him as Spock.

Yes, indeed I have enjoyed his performance as Spock as well, I just think we needed to have more time with the original Discovery characters before going back to familiar TOS elements. If this had happened perhaps there would have been more development of characters like Airiam and her death would have had more impact on me. This is what I am trying to say by sticking to originality instead of jumping headfirst to a familiar story. If you don’t do that then it shows that you don’t actually have enough confidence in the product itself.

The trailers look promising.

This looks so good, and i’m impressed that it doesn’t look like they’re simply remaking old episodes: they’re expanding and altering them. Nightmare at 30K sounds like it’s about a lot more than a creature on the wing. It’s like they took the more broad concept that “something’s wrong on this flight” and made it about more than the literal monster.

So I will be able to see 4 episodes before I cancel. Very nice. Hope it’s good!

I understand it’s someones right as a consumer to cancel a service. I intend to keep my service active. If CBS sees revenue throughout the year, they will develop more original content. Maybe just Star Trek? With Pike and Spock? It’s not like it’s $50.00 a month. I encourage everyone to keep their subscriptions active, if they are able. It’s $5.99 a month. I can give up a latte now and then. ML31 I intended no disrespect towards you and your decision to suspend your subscription until Picard starts. I’m hoping CBS All Access has a different Star Trek show on all year.

I would not urge anyone to pay for something they do not personally see as worth while. You find paying for CBSAA year round worth it for you. I do not. I mean, there is more, better programming to be found on HBO Go. Yet I don’t pay for that service. We all have our own standard of what is worth how much.

Respectfully, it’s up to a channel to keep me interested enough to keep paying for it, not up to me to pay for it in the hopes they’ll give me something interesting. The onus is on Them.

I’ve been diving in head first to Black Mirror for the first time and can’t get enough. As a fan of the original Twilight Zone I’m glad I’ll have even more to sink my teeth into between Black Mirror and this new iteration of Twilight Zone.

The new series will apparently air on CityTV in Canada (not sure if that means nationally, or just in the Toronto area): https://www.thetelegram.com/living/citytv-picks-up-jordan-peeles-the-twilight-zone-and-murphy-brown-reboot-215797/

You can’t one-up William Shatner. New Twilight Zone makes it 30,000 feet instead of 20,000, but Shatner later fought Druid ghosts at 37,000 feet!