J.J. Abrams to Create New Crime Series Duster for HBO Max

Warnermedia and HBO Max made a huge announcement today, confirming that filmmaker J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot production company have been given series orders for three shows on the streaming service. Fans quickly latched onto the news that Abrams and company are developing an adaptation of DC comics characters from the pages of Justice League Dark Universe and Overlook, horror-thriller series inspired by and featuring iconic characters from Stephen King's masterpiece The Shining; but the third series has been slightly overlooked and appears to be a new, original J.J. Abrams TV series.

Titled "Duster," the new series will be co-written by J.J. Abrams & LaToya Morgan, a current writer on AMC's The Walking Dead and whose other credits include Into the Badlands, Shameless, and TURN: Washington's Spies. The series is described as "Set in the 1970's Southwest, the life of a gutsy getaway driver for a growing crime syndicate goes from awful to wildly, stupidly, dangerously awful."

Duster, along with Overlook and the untitled Justice League Dark series, will be executive produced by J.J. Abrams and HBO Max's Head of Television, Ben Stephenson. Rachel Rusch Rich, Bad Robot's Executive Vice President of Television will serve as a co-executive producer. Warner Bros. International Television Distribution will be the global distributor for the programs.

"What an amazing start to our association with the wildly imaginative Bad Robot team under J.J. and Katie," said Kevin Reilly, Chief Content Officer, HBO Max and President, TNT, TBS, & truTV. "What could be better than an original J.J. idea and then Warner Bros. letting them loose on iconic I.P. from Stephen King and the DC Universe and to provide more must-have programming on HBO Max."

HBO Max reportedly remains on track to debut to viewers in the United States in May, though the first episode or seasons of any of these series won't debut for quite a while. When HBO Max launches it will cost $14.99 a month and will include content from the likes of HBO, Cartoon Network, TNT, TruTV, Crunchy Roll, DC Universe, TBS, and even originals for the service.

It was announced yesterday that Charter customers who are currently paying for HBO will receive HBO Max for free when it launches next month. Customers that have AT&T will also offer a similar deal to existing HBO subscribers will also get access to HBO Max for free when it launches.

(Cover photo by Karwai Tang/Getty Images)