"What would you sacrifice to live forever? What is your humanity worth?" These are the questions put forward by the new trailer released for the upcoming AMC+ animated series Pantheon. The sci-fi show will be based on a series of short stories by award-winning author Ken Liu, and will explore the speculative capabilities of technology and digitized human consciousness in a thrilling series that is set to have a two-episode premiere on Thursday, September 1 on AMC+ and AMC’s newly-acquired anime streaming service HIDIVE.
The trailer introduces viewers to Maddie, played by Katie Chang, a bullied teen who believes that the microchip company Logorhythms faked the death of her recently deceased father David, portrayed by Daniel Dae Kim. The truth, however, is much deeper than that as the company has been experimenting with a project to upload and digitize human brains. David was one of these subjects, with his consciousness being uploaded to the cloud following a destructive brain scan. David, now an "Uploaded Intelligence" or UI, reaches out to his daughter to help him take down a global conspiracy.
The trailer shows off the new digital world that David now occupies, interacting with Maddie through a VR headset. We also see other Uploads, people who have also been digitized and entered into the cloud. These people have powers beyond humans capabilities, including the ability to change their appearance, run at supersonic speeds, and fly. The trailer ends by showing the conflict in both the real and digital worlds hitting a boiling point, threatening to explode into a full-blown World War. The closing line of the trailer sums up how some of these characters view this new digital existence: "We were humans... we are Gods now!"
In addition to Chang and Kim as Maddie and David, respectively, Pantheon has an all-star ensemble cast of voice talent, including Paul Dano as Caspian, Rosemarie DeWitt as Ellen, Aaron Eckhart as Cary, Taylor Schilling as Renee, Ron Livingston as Waxman, Chris Diamantopoulos as Pope, Raza Jaffrey as Chanda, and William Hurt as Stephen Holstrom.
Other voice actors for the series include Scoot McNairy, Anika Noni Rose, Maude Apatow, Corey Stoll, Michael Kelly, Grey Griffin,SungWon Cho, Kevin Durand, Samuel Roukin, Krystina Alabado, Lara Pulver, Madhur Jeffrey, Heather Lind, Nyima Funk,Tunde Adebimpe, Quinn Hawking, Clyde Kusatsu, Ken Leung, Jacob Sartorius, Vincent Ventresca, Julian Lerner, Magnus McLain, Ajay Mehta, Annabella Sciorra, and Suraj Sharma.
Craig Silverstein (TURN: Washington’s Spies, Nikita) is on board writer, creator, showrunner, and executive producer. Big Mouth and Star Trek: Lower Decks animation studio Titmouse will be animating the series. Along with Silverstein, executive producers on the project include Chris Prynoski, Shannon Prynoski, Antonio Canobbio, Ben Kalina and Juno Lee for Titmouse. Lee also serves as director. Pantheon is produced by AMC Studios.
Pantheon is set to debut on both AMC+ and HIDIVE on September 1 in a two-episode premiere with new episodes airing every Thursday afterward. You can check out the new trailer and key art for the upcoming animated sci-fi series as well as read its official synopsis down below;
The thrilling speculative drama is centered on a bullied teen, Maddie, who receives mysterious help from someone online: a stranger soon revealed to be her recently deceased father, David, whose consciousness has been uploaded to the Cloud following an experimental destructive brain scan. David is the first of a new kind of being – an “Uploaded Intelligence” or “UI” – but he will not be the last, as a global conspiracy unfolds that threatens to trigger a new kind of world war.