Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series The Watch Releases First Trailer for BBC America

On Friday, during New York Comic Con Metaverse, the BBC released the new trailer for The Watch. The series is an adaptation of one of the novel’s in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. The show is co-produced by Narrativia and BBC Studios. The show’s cast includes Richard Dormer (Game of Thrones), Adam Hugill (1917), Jo Eaton-Kent (Don’t Forget The Driver), Marama Corlette (Blood Drive) Lara Rossi (Crossing Lines), and Sam Adewunmi (The Last Tree). The Watch will premiere in January 2021 on BBC America. Discworld fans remain divided over the series.

According to BBC America, “Set in a fictional city where crime has been legalized, The Watch is a genre-busting series that follows a group of misfit cops as they rise up from decades of helplessness to save their corrupt city from catastrophe. Uniquely anarchic and thrillingly entertaining, the character-driven drama follows several of Terry Pratchett‘s best-loved creations from his Discworld novels on a riotous and emotional odyssey.” Here are the cast descriptions:

• Richard Dormer plays Sam Vimes, Captain of The Watch, disempowered by a broken society that’s reduced his department’s jurisdiction to almost nothing.
• Jo Eaton-Kent plays Constable Cheery, the ingenious non-binary forensics expert, ostracized by their kin and finding a new home and identity.
• Adam Hugill plays Constable Carrot, the idealistic new recruit, raised by dwarfs, but really a human abandoned at birth.
• Marama Corlette is the mysterious Corporal Angua who is tasked with Carrot’s training and keeping the rookie alive.
• Lara Rossi plays the formidable Lady Sybil Ramkin, last scion of Ankh-Morpork’s nobility, who’s trying to fix the city’s wrongs with her chaotic vigilantism.
• Sam Adewunmi is the wounded and wronged Carcer Dun, out to hijack destiny itself, take control of the city and exact a terrible revenge on an unjust reality.

“The Watch has been startlingly reimagined for television by writer Simon Allen, while still cleaving to the humor, heart and ingenuity of Terry Pratchett’s incomparably original work,” BBC America president Sarah Barnett said in a statement when announcing the series. “BBC America embraces what’s fresh and exhilarating in TV; we believe The Watch will astonish audiences.”

Narrativia, the company founded by Pratchett, recently entered into a new agreement that will see additional stories from Discworld adapted into new media. “The Discworld books are a huge source of joy to millions of readers, and rightly so; every paragraph, phrase and footnote was crafted with brilliance and flair and we are committed to bringing Terry’s world to the screen with the respect and care it deserves,” says Rob Wilkins, Managing Director of Narrativia. “With this partnership, we are delighted to say that Discworld has finally found its home.”