HBO shares a positively chilling trailer for their Chernobyl limited series

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The 1986 Chernobyl disaster is among one of the most catastrophic nuclear accidents in human history. What started as a late-night safety test to simulate blackout power-failure, turned deadly when inherent flaws in the facility's reactor design eventually caused unfathomable and uncontrolled reactions to the core of the structure. What happened next was unlike anything those responsible for the destruction could ever hope to comprehend, leaving an exorbitant amount of plant employees, service persons, and citizens of Pripyat, a town on the northern end of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union, dead or decaying from the nightmare scenario.

Chernobyl, HBO, Jared Harris

Today HBO has debuted a trailer for CHERNOBYL, a five-part miniseries set for a Monday, May 6 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT) premiere. All five chapters of the series were directed by THE LAST PANTHERS series helmer Johan Renck, who aims to tell a dramatized tale of the 1986 nuclear accident, and of the brave men and women who sacrificed to save Europe from unimaginable disaster, all the while battling a culture of disinformation.

Leading the trailer for CHERNOBYL is Jared Harris as Valery Legasov, a prominent Soviet inorganic chemist and a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, who refused to allow the continued spread of misinformation about the accident, among other contributions. Harris is backed by an ensemble cast for the miniseries with actors Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Ralph Ineson, Fares Fares, Adam Nagaitis, and David Dencik also joing the 'based on true events' drama.

I don't know about you, but this trailer has CHERNOBYL looking compelling as all get out. To think that there's a part of the world that is still dealing with the fallout of this atrocity makes my stomach churn and my heart ache for those affected. I'll definitely be checking this one out.

Source: HBO

About the Author

Born and raised in New York, then immigrated to Canada, Steve Seigh has been a JoBlo.com editor, columnist, and critic since 2012. He started with Ink & Pixel, a column celebrating the magic and evolution of animation, before launching the companion YouTube series Animation Movies Revisited. He's also the host of the Talking Comics Podcast, a personality-driven audio show focusing on comic books, film, music, and more. You'll rarely catch him without headphones on his head and pancakes on his breath.