Based on William Gibson's 2014 novel of the same name, The Peripheral TV series transpires over two distinct timelines. In 2032, Flynne Fisher (Chloë Grace Moretz) lives a simple life taking care of her sickly mother and excelling at video games. Flynne and her ex-Marine brother, Burton (Jack Reynor), cover their mother's medical expenses by participating in simulation video games called Sims. When one gig transports Flynne to dystopian London 2099 and tasks her with stealing sensitive secrets from the Research Institute, the virtual adventure becomes all too real. The two siblings soon find themselves pitted against a shadowy organization that wants them dead.
In the future, handler Wilf (Gary Carr) guides Flynne and partially clues her in on the power struggle she's been dragged into, although he has an agenda of his own. With a multimillion-dollar hit put out on Flynne, she and Burton must defend themselves from mercenary attacks and future threats while piecing together what is going on. Executive Producer Jonathan Nolan and Carr recently spoke with CBR about what the title refers to, trust issues, and what Nolan learned from Westworld.
CBR: The Peripheral is an interesting title. Can you explain the meaning behind it?
Jonathan Nolan: What I took from it immediately when presented with Gibson's brilliant book, first and foremost because I am a bit of a computer nerd, is the technologies that you connect and hook up to your computer. So far, our only interaction with the digital world is through voice, fingertips... Now, with Zoom, face. The idea of being able to slip down the escape hatch... We all feel a bit trapped in here... and that idea is right now of, "What is going to break the cage of our Neocortex and allow our identities to slip out, escape this world and seek out other worlds?" That's something we have been fascinated about for a long time.
Gary, Wilf keeps telling Flynne that she can trust him, but can she really? How much did you play up that ambiguity about where his allegiances lie?
Gary Carr: At the beginning, I don't think she can trust him. I think the show makes that very clear. He has his view, as does everybody in the London section of the series. These other people don't really matter. We just have things we need to find out. We need to get answers. We have questions. So, we do what we need to do and say what we need to say. That is Wilf's job, actually. He's a fixer. He's playing them, but Flynne can't be played. He doesn't really value her as a human being until halfway through the series. I love that arc. I love that he sees the humanity in her, and it changes the dynamic between them. There comes a point where she can actually start trusting him, and it's genuine.
Jonathan, what did you learn about pacing and world-building from Westworld that you implemented on The Peripheral?
Nolan: I think every series is different. The more we do this, the longer we do this, the more questions I have about the format in a really fun way. With this project, I remember Scott Smith was writing the script as Bill Gibson was writing a sequel at the same time to his book. But the book and the world deal with the idea of hierarchal universes... All the different possibilities. What if I had taken a slightly different turn here? Gibson has found a way within the narrative to reconcile those ideas in a brilliant way. The idea of working on a series that contained multitudes, that contained many versions of itself, was delicious. How do you pass that up? Contained within the idea itself is the idea of the many possibilities of how the narrative unfolds. One of the fun things about television is that it is currently a medium exploring itself in a really exciting way.
The Peripheral is streaming now on Prime Video, with new episodes released every Friday.