A few weeks ago, Jordan Peele became the surprise MVP of an otherwise boring-as-fuck Super Bowl when he made his first appearance as the host of the Twilight Zone reboot. The brief teaser was exciting, but it was just that—a teaser. There was no actual footage from upcoming episodes, just 60 seconds of Jordan Peele walking around the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, whispering ominously like some kind of ASMR Rod Serling.
Now, finally, CBS dropped our first real look at the series in a brand-new trailer—and it looks like this thing is going to be legitimately terrifying.
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Sure, the original Twilight Zone was scary for its time—the giants from “To Serve Man” are spooky as hell, and both the ventriloquist dummy and that roving slot machine are the stuff of nightmares. But this new footage looks ominous in a whole different way, like it borrows more from horror than Rod Serling. Seeing as how it comes from the mind of Jordan Peele, that’s probably a good thing.
The trailer gives us flashes of just about everyone from the stacked cast list, including Kumail Nanjiani, John Cho, Allison Tolman, Taissa Farmiga, and Adam Scott, who’s set to fill William Shatner’s shoes in the remake of the classic Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” Tracy Morgan even makes a short appearance, vaping and asking Nanjiani some deep questions in a comedy club, because, well, why not?
There are quick nods to other classic episodes, too: The creature that haunts Shatner shows up as a doll washing ashore in Adam Scott’s episode, the devil fortune teller from “Nick of Time ” makes an appearance, and, uh, is that Jacob Tremblay putting a new spin on “It’s a Good Life“? Who knows! They’re cramming a ton into a minute-and-a-half-long clip! Everything is happening so fast!
The first two episodes of Twilight Zone premiere on CBS All Access April 1. Until then, obsessively pick apart the trailer frame-by-frame for easter eggs above.
UPDATE 2/22: An earlier version of this post inadvertently referred to Tracy Morgan as Tracy Jordan. We regret the error. We just miss 30 Rock so much.
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