Ron Nyswaner has commented on the future of his limited Showtime series Fellow Travelers.
Airing on Paramount Plus in the UK, the series is based on the lauded Thomas Mallon novel of the same name, which follows a “volatile” gay romance in the shadow of McCarthy-era Washington.
Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey respectively lead the series as Hawkins Fuller and Tim Laughlin, with their affair coinciding with Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn’s declaration of war on “subversives and sexual deviants”.
Fellow Travelers chronicles their (at times) toxic relationship over the course of four decades whilst exploring the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the “drug-fueled disco hedonism” of the 1970s and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.
Additional cast members include Jelani Alladin as Marcus Gaines, Linus Roache as Senator Wesley Smith, Noah J. Ricketts as Frankie Hines, Allison Williams as Lucy Smith, Will Brill as Roy Cohn and Chris Bauer as Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Although Fellow Travelers has been billed as a “miniseries”, Nyswaner and producer Robbie Rogers told Entertainment Weekly that it could possibly develop into an anthology that would “track different queer fellow travelers across history”.
“Yes, I think that there are many stories to be told, and Robbie and I have spoken in detail. Because of the strike, we haven’t spoken to any of our studio executives about it,” said Nyswaner.
“When the strike ends, that’ll be a conversation that I hope to have immediately with them. Even maybe taking one or two of the characters from this season who weren’t [featured] as prominently as Hawk and Tim.”
In a follow-up conversation with GAY TIMES, Nyswaner said he hasn’t “shared” those discussions with his “employers, so this will be news to them!”
Describing Fellow Travelers as “one of the greatest experiences” of his life, the creator teased of the show’s future: “If I can continue, in some way, that’s a conversation to be had with the people who will be financing that. But, we will be having that conversation.”
Released to universal critical acclaim, Fellow Travelers has received various nominations including Best Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television at the 81st Golden Globe Awards.
Bomer has additionally received a nomination for Best Performance by an Actor.
In Bailey’s GAY TIMES cover story, the actor explained that he wanted his first major LGBTQIA+ project to be as queer as possible, saying you “can’t get more queer than Fellow Travelers” and that it’s “the gayest show I could find”.
“Someone asked me after Bridgerton, ‘What do you want to do next?’ and that is an amazing position to be in, having worked for so long to suddenly have real choice in what you do,” he explained.
“I knew that I wanted to do a sweeping gay love story because I hadn’t seen it, especially one that’s detailed over eight hours.”
Fellow Travelers is available to stream in the UK on Paramount Plus.
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