Even the two lead stars of the new Amazon sci-fi series Utopia find it strangely ironic how the  present day pandemic mirrors the main plotline in the series. Utopia stars John Cusack and Rainn Wilson and follows a group of comic book fans who believe an unpublished sequel predicts several disastrous epidemics. As the cities shutdown due to unexplained pandemics, the friends become the hunted.   

Five Things You Need to Know:

  1. The U.S. series is based on the 2013 hit British show of the same name.  
  2. When the show was first being developed back in 2015, the cast consisted of Rooney Mara, Eric McCormack and Jason Ritter.  
  3. Nearly four years later, when shooting began, the cast now includes Rainn Wilson, John Cusack, Jessica Rothe, Dan Byrd, Cory Michael Smith, Ashleigh LaThrop, Desmin Borges, Farrah Mackenzie, and Christopher Denham  
  4. The former Office star Rainn Wilson found it strangely odd how the pandemic in the show became semi-true in real life saying, "We thought we were making a fun crazy romp, science fiction elements and conspiracy theory so it’s pretty cool and weird this show mirrors the real world to an extent."  
  5. And when we asked the very "thoughtful" John Cusack if he's an optimistic person during these troubled times, he replied, "As a wise person said 'hope and reason are two separate things.'  Right so if you look at the world reasonably, you can feel very sad about it, yet hope exists cause there’s always the possibility for change and you believe in people, but hope and reason are not always connected."