The Time Traveler's Wife Trailer: Audrey Niffenegger's Time-Travel Romance Heads To HBO In May
A love story centered on a wayward time-traveler with "Sherlock" alum Steven Moffat serving as the head writer and executive producer — is this a new season of "Doctor Who"? Nah, but you would be forgiven for assuming as much after watching the trailer for "The Time Traveler's Wife." In actuality, it's a series based on Audrey Niffenegger's best-selling 2003 novel of the same name. This isn't the first time the author's story has made its way to the screen, either. In 2009, Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana starred in a film adaptation of the book, assuming the roles that are played by Rose Leslie ("Game of Thrones") and Theo James ("Divergent") in Moffat's show.
"The Time Traveler's Wife" follows Clare Abshire (Leslie), a woman whose relationship with her husband, Henry DeTamble (James), is complicated by Henry's unusual genetic disorder, which causes him to fall back and forth in time at random and without warning. "I can't keep hold of a current moment. I just slide off," as Henry explains it in the series' teaser.
Watch the Time Traveler's Wife teaser
David Nutter ("Game of Thrones") directed all six episodes of "The Time Traveler's Wife," with Desmin Borges ("You're the Worst"), Kate Siegel ("Midnight Mass"), Josh Stamberg ('WandaVision"), Jaime Ray Newman ("Dopesick"), Michael Park ("Stranger Things"), and Will Brill ("The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel") among the members of the show's supporting cast. Moffat spoke in greater depth about the series and how, time-travel aside, it differs from other love stories at HBO's 2022 TCA press conference:
"What is thrilling of the interaction of time travel and a love story here, is it makes the most common phenomenon of a completely happy marriage, interesting again. Love stories, or love movies, tend to end at the alter. We never do the bit where people are perfectly happy for decades because it seems like a dramatic thing. By scrambling it all up and constantly reminding you that love is inextricably linked to loss, which is a cheery thought, you make this very common phenomenon of a happy marriage, thrilling and full of attention and tragedy."
Full cards on the table: After a strong start, I felt Moffat failed to realize the loftier ideas he introduced early on back when he was head writer on "Doctor Who." Even worse, as the show went on under his watch, he started resorting more and more to his worst motifs as a writer (like his habits of penning overly quip-y dialogue and intriguing sub-plots that flame out in frustrating ways). I know others have had similar feelings about his work in the past, be it "Jekyll," "Sherlock," or the "Dracula" series he co-created with Mark Gatiss. It's why I'm wary of him taking on "The Time Traveler's Wife," least of all because Niffenegger's novel really doesn't lend itself to his style of storytelling.
That being said, it would be great if Moffat evolved his writing to better fit "The Time Traveler's Wife" and its themes about love, loss, and life, and not vice vera (as skeptical as I am about assuming he did). We'll just have to wait and see what happens when the show arrives on HBO in May.