Newcomer Saniyya Sidney becomes humanity’s greatest hope in the apocalyptic vampiric thriller series The Passage, coming to Fox January 14. Mark-Paul Gosselaar also stars as the man who must keep her safe from a government who views her as humanity’s potential cure.

The Passage is written and executive produced by Friday Night Lights writer/supervising producer Liz Heldens and also features the executive producing power of directors Ridley Scott and Matt Reeves. The series is based on the eponymous book trilogy by Josh Cronin.

Gosselaar plays an agent who becomes a father figure to an orphan named Amy Bellafonte (Sidney) who could change the trajectory of humanity forever. As the official description states:

THE PASSAGE focuses on Project Noah, a secret medical facility where scientists are experimenting with a dangerous virus that could lead to the cure for all disease but also carries the potential to wipe out the human race. When a young girl (Saniyya Sidney, Fences, Hidden Figures) is chosen to be a test subject, a federal agent (Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Pitch) is tasked with bringing her in, but ultimately, becomes her surrogate father, determined to protect her at any cost – even as Project Noah’s work threatens to unleash an unimaginable apocalypse.

The Passage will also star Jamie McShane, Caroline Chikezie, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Brianne Howey, McKinley Belcher III, Henry Ian Cusick and Vincent Piazza.

Fox ordered the first season of the series in May, with the first trailer for the series dropping the same month.

From what the preview shows, The Passage has the ability to become one of the most gripping shows of 2019. It’ll be interesting to see how audiences respond to Sidney’s character. The potential is there for commentary about how the government has utilized Black bodies in the past, such as the unauthorized usage of Henrietta Lacks’ cells for cancer research, in the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and the birth of modern gynecology.

Check out a new recently-released trailer below:

Henry Ian Cusick

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