It's been a pretty good year for science ... in the world of movies and TV shows, at least. Arrival has audiences rethinking everything they know about first contact with an alien species, National Geographic's Mars series is dramatizing a potential manned mission to the red planet, and HBO's Westworld has people talking about artificial intelligence and ethics in ways only achieved previously in smaller sci-fi circles. So with that latter series' recent success, it makes sense that the premium cable network would look to explore other sci-fi shows with executive producer J.J. Abrams.

THR reports that HBO is teaming up with Abrams' Bad Robot for Glare, an hourlong drama series that would center on the exploration and colonization of another planet. Enemy screenwriter Javier Gullón will write the script and act as executive producer on the drama, stemming from a blind script deal he had with Bad Robot. The drama comes from Warner Bros. Television where Abrams has a profitable overall deal. Ben Stephenson, former BBC head of drama and now Bad Robot's head of development, acts as executive producer alongside Abrams and Gullón.

Since Abrams most recently executive produced Westworld for HBO, which has been renewed for a second season (though we won't see it until 2018...), this new series should be a no-brainer for all involved. Add to that the fact that "space" is a hot sub-genre at the moment with a lot of the final frontier left to explore. TBS has an animated comedy series on order called Final Space; Netflix is bringing back the classic series Lost in Space; and Syfy's futuristic sci-fi series The Expanse, has established an audience, one who's interested in seeing what happens after mankind has colonized the solar system. There should be an audience for Glare if and when it's ready to make its debut, and Abrams has a proven record of successful TV series and movies to date; I'm just hoping they tweak that title before its eventual release.