Peacock is giving us our first look at the new “Queer as Folk” series. The show – a reboot of the 2000s series which was based on the original British series – is set to stream this June. It follows a group of LGBTQ+ friends in New Orleans, who try to rebuild their lives and community as they go through a horrible tragedy.
Creator Stephen Dunn told The Hollywood Reporter that the show is less a “reboot” and more a “reimagining.” He explained, “If you squint, you can see the character archetypes that exist that are a slight reference [to the original] but I’m not heading toward the same trajectory as any of the other versions of the show before.”
Maybe the biggest difference between the new “Queer as Folk” and the original is the political context. As seen in the trailer, in the new series, the characters are all at a gay bar in New Orleans when it’s attacked by a gunman, echoing 2016’s Pulse shooting. Dunn told The Hollywood Reporter that he talked extensively with Pulse survivors and some of them served as consultants on the series.
Dunn told The Hollywood Reporter that setting the series in New Orleans made it natural to showcase a wider range of diversity than the original series did. He explained, “New Orleans is a key part of that approach because it has the most unique, vibrant queer community I’ve ever been to. The city itself, despite the fact that it has the Bourbon Street reputation, it is inherently queer, resilient and defiant. It’s the queer and liberal oasis in the deep South so it attracts the queerdos from all over but in this way that, because of what’s surrounding them, you have to be so much stronger.”
Read on for everything we know about the new “Queer as Folk” series, including the trailer, cast, and first-look photos.
