Station Eleven (miniseries)
Station Eleven is an American post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction miniseries created by Patrick Somerville based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Emily St. John Mandel. The miniseries premiered on HBO Max on December 16, 2021, and ran for ten episodes until January 13, 2022. Premise. Twenty years after a flu pandemic resulted in the collapse of civilization, a group of survivors who make their living as traveling performers encounter a violent cult led by a man whose past is unknowingly linked to a member of the troupe. Production. Development. In February 2015, producer Scott  Steindorff acquired the TV and film rights to the novel. On June 25, 2019, the series was ordered by the streaming service HBO Max, created by Patrick Somerville with Hiro Murai attached as a director. Both are executive producing alongside Scott Delman, Dylan Russell, Scott Steindorff, Jessica Rhoades, Jeremy Podeswa, and Nate Matteson. The miniseries premiered on December 16, 2021. Podeswa, Helen Shaver, and Lucy Tcherniak also directed episodes. Differences from novel. Somerville made several major changes from the original novel's plot, such as creating a more significant relationship between Jeevan and Kirsten. In addition, the Canadian setting of  the majority of the novel is replaced with an American setting. Though much of the Year Zero setting in the original novel is St. John-Mandel's native Toronto, Somerville moved the action to his own native Chicago. Ironically, due to the COVID pandemic, shooting was moved from Chicago to Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto. Casting. In October 2019, Mackenzie Davis, Himesh Patel and David Wilmot were cast to star in the series. Matilda Lawler would be added in November 2019. In January 2020, Gael García Bernal was cast in a recurring role. In February 2020, Danielle Deadwyler joined the  cast in a recurring capacity. Nabhaan Rizwan and Philippine Velge would join as series leads in March 2020. In April 2021, Daniel Zovatto and Lori Petty joined the cast in lead roles, while Andy McQueen, David Cross, Enrico Colantoni, Julian Obradors, and Deborah Cox joined the cast in recurring roles. Luca Villacis, Prince Amponsah, Dylan Taylor, Joe Pingue, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Ajahnis Charley, Milton Barnes and Kate Moyer joined the cast in recurring capacities in June 2021. Filming. Filming began in Chicago in January 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, production moved to Mississauga on February 1, 2021, and concluded  on July 9, 2021. Reception. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 98% approval rating with an average rating of 8.1/10, based on 53 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, ""Station Eleven" rewards patient viewers with an insightful and thematically rich assertion that—even in the post-apocalypse—the show must go on." On the review aggregator Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".