First Look at ‘Duster’: JJ Abrams, Latoya Morgan’s New Action Drama Series (Exclusive)

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JJ ABRAMS IS BACK WITH THE FIRST PROJECT HE’S CO-Written in Six Years. The Star Trek an Star Wars: The Force Awakens Director Has Teamed with Fellow: Writer and Executive Producer Latoya Morgan for A Max Drama Series that Reunitis Abrams with His LOST Star JOsh Holloway.

Set in 1972, The Series Follows The First Black Famale Fbi Agent (Rachel Hilson) As She Heads to the Southwest and Recruits a Gutsy Getaway Driver Syndicate (Led By Keith David). But As is of the Case with Projects that Abrams have worked on, Things aren’t quite as StraightForward as they might initialy seem.

The Result is an Upbeat and Poppy Retro Crime Thriller That Warmly ShowCases Its’

For Abrams, Duster is the Latest in a Slew of Post-Rise of Skywalker Projects He’s Developed and Worked On, Including Executive Production Apple TV+S Presumered InnocentWhile Morgan Is a Writer and Producer Whose Credits Include Showtime’s Shameless and Amc’s Turn: Washington’s Spies. The Series Also Stars Sydney Elisabeth, Camille Guaty, Asivak Koostachin, Adriana Aluna Martinez, Benjamin Charles Watson and, of Course, Abrams’ Own CONSTANT, GREG GRUNT.

Included in the Chat Below Are Eight First-Look Photos. Read on As Abrams and Morgan Break their Silence About the Action-Drama Series, Ahead of DSTER’s Debut on Max in May.

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SO How Did this Idea Come About?

Latoya Morgan JJ Got Ahold of Scripts I Had Written, and He Reached Out and He Wanted to Meet. HE TOLD ME HAD this IMAGE IN HIS HIS HEAD THAT HAD FOR About 20 Years of A Scene That’s In The Pilot of A Car Racing Tovards A Pay Phone in The Middle Of The Desert. WHEN HE TOLD ME THAT IDEA, IT JUST SPARKED Something and We Just Started Pitching Ideas. It was Really like Jazz. SO we just have been in that moment we should work together on it, and the REST IS History.

And Can’s Really Find Pay Phones AnyWhere, SO I GUESS THAT Partly Explans Setting It in the 1970s. JJ, What Personally Excited You About This Idea?

JJ ABRAMS I HAD this Image of A Phone in the Middle of the Desert and a Car Driving Up, and A Guy Getting on the Phone to Find Out WHERE HE WAS MEANT TO GO NEXT. IT IMPLIED SOME KINE OF CRAZY INTRIGUE, AND I DIDNN’T KNOW WHAT The ANSWER WAS, But I KNEW IT WAS COMPELING. LATOYA AND I STARTED TALKING About Who this Guy Might Be, And I ALWAYS KNEW There Wuld Be An Fbi Agent Who’s Showed Up. But it wasn’t usntil wested Talking about what her story is, that we started buying this story-sometting that felt twisty and turn-i and Ultimately realy satisfying. That became the goal: How do we teell a crazy thing that actualally ends up being Driven Towards One Point and WHERE WE’RE ACTUALLY HEADED TOWARDS SOMETING THERE FEELS INEVITABLEABLE. WHERE WE WOURT The VIBE OF IT, The SPIRIT OF IT, The SENSE OF HUMOR AND THE SENSE OF Absurdity?

This is SO ODD – I was fascinated by this Literal Phone Booth in the Middle of the Desert Around 20 Years Ago. Latoya, What Was Important To You In Terms Of Telling This Story?

Morgan The That Was Most Exciting for Me Was That We Could to Something Was A ThrowBack to Things That Not Really Really On Television Anymore. You could have this fun pastiche of action and human. IT WAS RELALY A CHANCE TO JUMP INTO COMETING COMPLETH FEET.

You’ve work with Many Other Writers and Producers on Different Shows. WHAT MADE THIS JJ GUY UNIQUE?

Morgan I Mean, He’s Brilliant. He’s jj! It Was An Honor Just to Meet Him—

Abrams [[Dryly]And Cannot Alog this to Continue.

Morgan WHEN WE FIRST SAT DOWN, HE TALKED ABOUT A SCRIPT OF MINE THAT HE READ AND MY WRITING, AND I’M LIKE, “OH, I’M BEING PUNK’D RIGHT NOW.” We Really Have Similar Taste. SO as we were throwing out iDeas, we have just just responing to what kind of each of US was throwing out. His eye as a director is unmatched. It’s Really Been A Dream Collaboration and Great to Learn from His Experience.

Abrams While She Brought Strong Point of View and and Attitude to the Characters and Took It in Directions that sometimes challenged what we were thinking, an other times were. She was Really a Great Collborator.

It’s Been A Minute Since You Were Writing in the TV Space. There was an hbo sci-project that didn’t work out and doing Skywalker with Disney Certainly Wasn’t Easy. What’s It Been Like for You Coming Back Into This?

Abrams I’ve been working on a number of Other things and processing Things in the Last Five Years. WHEN I WAS DOING Presumered InnocentIT Was Really Fun to Work on that As A Producer and Not Feel Like I Was Being Pulled in Eight Million Different Directions. I’ve been work various movies that have taken a couple years to get set up. I’m in London Now a Movie i Start Shooting in April. But to collaborate with Latoya has been a great Reminder of How Much Fun It Is To Work on a Series Where The Characters Can Continue to Develop and Surprise You As You As You. It’s Been A Wonderful “Getting Back in the Saddle” Experience.

In Terms of your leads, What Made Ruchel Hilson Right for this Role?

Morgan She Blew US Away in Her Audition. She’s Done Some Really Great Work on Love, Victor and shows like that, but this was an opportunity for US to see her stretch. IT’s A Really Challenging Role. She’s Pushing Josh’s Character to the Edge. SO We Wanted Someone with Toughness and Intelligence, But Also That Beautify Vulnerability That She Presents in The Role. She was Really A Revelation.

Abrams JOsh is Such A Strong Actor and Has Such Energy and Personality on Screen, That We Knew We Needed Someone Who Could Hold The Screen with HIM and REALLY PUSH HIM. Rachel Hadn’t Really Played Anything Like This Before and This Was A Chance for Her To Step Into A Role That She Could to Totally Command.

Josh obviously have been a long legacy with jj how how did he react WHEN HE GOT this call? And how have was he changed as an actor over the years? I MEAN, HEOHOW STILL LOOKS The SAME, WHICH IS ANNOYING.

Abrams I Called Him Five Years Ago to Say, “Wound You Ever Want To Do A SHOW WHERE YOU PLAY A DRIVER FOR Some Kind of Criminal Organization?” And he’s like, “yeah.” SO the WHOLE TIME We Were Writing This, It Was Always With Jump in Mind. He’s Someone and Just Love Working with. And with Age, I Think He’s Gotten Even Even More Comfortable With His Wry Swagger and Toughness, and Also Vulneracy and Being Unsure of HimSelf. IT’s A ToUugh Balancing Act. He’s a Great-Looking Guy, But He’s Genuinely Funny and Big Hearted and He Brings that to the Character.

Morgan He have such Natural Charm and Gravitas. I WAS A FAN OF HIM SINCE SINCE LOST. But is also Great to see him no. 1 on the call sheet. He’s a Great Leader for All the Rest of the Cast and the Crew.

WHAT WAS IT About this Time Period that Was appeiling?

Morgan There was the Fun in the Obslescence of Things. I Love Cb Radios and Car Culture and Car Chases and the Music of the Time. We Wanted to Lean Into All Those Things. And there’s a thriller aspect to this show. There’s a mystery at the heart of it. There are mysteries that i won’t spoil. IT’s A CHANCE TO DO A Combination of Those Things and Set It In A Time Period A Lot of People Familiar with, and, for the folks that is aren, it, it, a CHANCE TO FUM.

You Mentioned Mysteries. Obviously Jj, You Helped Pioneer The Narrative “Mystery Box” – A Term You Probably Hate at this Point. But this appears to be a pretty strighForward for the most part, or am i making a wrong assumption on that front?

Abrams IT ISN’T STRAIGHTFORward. There are a lot of things that you don’t expect. What I Love About the Show, and What I Think Latoya and I HAD The MOST FUN WITH, IS You Never Quite Know, Who You Open A Door, What Kind of Uncepted Criminal Mind Is Going To. The most Satisfying Thing for Me Was Seeing How Soe Elements – Some of Wich Seem Crazy and Out there – End Up Actual Serving a Real Narrative Purpos. ALSO, Every Episode Feels Like It’s Ending on A Fun Cliffhanger Vibe that you get from serialized comics. WHEN WE WEER DOING The FIRST COUple SEASONSS AliasIT WAS SO MUCH FUN BECAUSE Everi Episode Ended With Like A DEFINITIVE Cliffhanger. We Ultimately Got Told by the Network that we have to stop doing that because it was harder to put a show into syndication iF it was that linear. But that’s a Thing that’s Really Fun About this Show.