Netflix has released a new trailer for the upcoming post-apocalyptic comedy series Daybreak, starring Matthew Broderick. Based on the comics by Brian Ralph, Netflix says in a press release, “In this post-apocalyptic, genre-bending series, the city of Glendale, California is populated by marauding gangs of jocks, gamers, the 4-H Club, and other fearsome tribes who are kicking ass as they fight to survive in the wake of a nuclear blast (on the night of Homecomingโฆugh). Following an eclectic group of survivors as they navigate this strange and treacherous world, Daybreak is part samurai saga, part endearing coming-of-age story, and part Battle Royale. This Generation A series (A for Apocalypse! Get it?) is rated TV MA.
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“Starring Matthew Broderick as Glendale High School’s Principal Michael Burr; Krysta Rodriguez as the biology teacher; Colin Ford as our hero and every-teen, 17-year-old Josh Wheeler; Sophie Simnett as Sam Dean, the most widely admired girl at Glendale High; Austin Crute as contemplative samurai Wesley Fists; Alyvia Alyn Lind as highly unstable kid genius Angelica Green; Cody Kearsley as Turbo Bro Jock, the bloodthirsty leader of the jocks; Jeantรฉ Godlock as Mona Lisa, his badass right-hand woman; and Gregory Kasyan as Eli Cardashyan (not that Kardashian). Executive producers are Aron Eli Coleite, Brad Peyton, and Jeff Fierson.”
Netflix ordered 10 episodes of Daybreak in July 2018. Aron Eli Coleite was announced as showrunner. Coleite co-created the series with Brad Peyton. ASAP Entertainment produces the series. Principal photography began in Albuquerque in October 2018 and wrapped in April 2019.
“It feels like to survive high school you need a tribe, and to survive the apocalypse you need a tribe,” Coleite told Entertainment Weekly. “That’s how we get through this: with our friends…[The show has] this optimistic view of the end of the world. It immediately transported me back to high school and feeling like, ‘Man, I would love it if the world ended right now because I could totally reinvent myself. I could be anybody else.’ And I think that that’s a really common thing that a lot of us felt in high school.”
The series is based on the Daybreak graphic novels by Brian Ralph, which he began publishing in 2006. The comic will get a hardcover re-release in October to coincide with the show’s Netflix debut. Publisher Drawn & Quarterly describes Daybreak as “The Road meets Dawn of the Dead,” and says it draws “inspiration from zombies, horror movies, television, and first-person shooter video games, Daybreak departs from zombie genre in both content and format, achieving a living-dead masterwork of literary proportions.”
Are you excited about Daybreak? Let us know in the comments. Daybreak debuts on Netflix on October 24th.