''The Passage'' is an American thriller television series based on the trilogy of novels by

Justin Cronin Justin Cronin (born 1962) is an American author. He has written five novels: ''Mary and O'Neil'' and ''The Summer Guest'', as well as a vampire trilogy consisting of ''The Passage,'' '' The Twelve'' and '' City of Mirrors''. He has won the Heming ...

. It spans years in the life of Amy Bellafonte, as she moves from being manipulated in a government conspiracy to protecting humankind in a post-apocalyptic vampire future. The series premiered on January 14, 2019. ''The Passage'' was cancelled after one season on May 10, 2019.

Synopsis

''The Passage'' focuses on Project Noah, a secret medical facility where scientists are experimenting with a dangerous virus that could lead to the cure for all disease, but also carries the potential to wipe out the human race. When a young girl, Amy Bellafonte, is chosen to be a test subject, Federal Agent Brad Wolgast is tasked with bringing her to Project Noah. Ultimately, however, Wolgast becomes her surrogate father, as he tries to protect her at any cost. Brad and Amy's journey will force them to confront Project Noah's lead scientist, Major Nichole Sykes, and the hardened ex-CIA operative in charge of operations, Clark Richards, whom Brad trained. It likewise brings them face-to-face with a dangerous new race of beings confined within the walls of Project Noah, including former scientist Tim Fanning and death-row inmate Shauna Babcock. As Project Noah's scientists home in on a cure that could save humanity, these new beings begin to test their own powers, inching one step closer to an escape that could lead to an unimaginable apocalypse.

Cast

Mark-Paul Gosselaar Mark-Paul Harry Gosselaar (; born March 1, 1974) is an American actor. He is known for his television roles, most notably as Zack Morris in ''Saved by the Bell''. In 1991, he won a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Starring in an Off-Pri ...

as Brad Wolgast * Saniyya Sidney as Amy Bellafonte * Jamie McShane as Tim Fanning, a medical doctor and philanthropist *

Caroline Chikezie Caroline Chikezie (born 19 February 1974) is a British Nigerian actress, best known for playing Sasha Williams in '' As If'', and Elaine Hardy in ''Footballers' Wives''. In recent years she has gained popularity as Angela Ochello in the Niger ...

as Nichole Sykes, a military doctor who heads Project Noah *

Emmanuelle Chriqui Emmanuelle Sophie Anne Chriqui ( ; born 10 December 1975) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her performance on HBO's '' Entourage'' as Sloan McQuewick, Claire Bonner in '' Snow Day'', Dalia in '' You Don't Mess with the Zohan'', Lorelei ...

as Lila Kyle *

Brianne Howey Brianne Nicole Howey (born May 24, 1989) is an American actress. She had main roles in the Fox series ''The Exorcist'' (2016) and '' The Passage'' (2019). She had a recurring role in the first season of The CW's superhero drama '' Batwoman'' (2 ...

as Shauna Babcock *

McKinley Belcher III McKinley Belcher III (born March 23, 1984) is an American actor, known for his starring role as Samuel Diggs in the PBS television series ''Mercy Street'', Anthony Carter in the Fox genre drama ''The Passage'', and as Agent Trevor Evans in Ne ...

as Anthony Carter *

Henry Ian Cusick Henry Ian Cusick (born 17 April 1967) is a Peruvian-Scottish actor of television, film, and theatre and a television director. He is best known for his role as Desmond Hume in the ABC television series ''Lost'', for which he received a Prim ...

as Jonas Lear, a doctor *

Vincent Piazza Vincent Piazza (born May 25, 1976) is an American film, television and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of gangster Lucky Luciano in the HBO television series ''Boardwalk Empire''. He has also played Earl Hefner in the comedy-dra ...

as Clark Richards

Production

Development

In July 2007, Fox 2000 paid $1.75million for the film rights to '' The Passage'' by

. In September 2009, John Logan was announced to be writing a screenplay with Ridley Scott attached to direct. In April 2011,

Matt Reeves Matt Reeves (born April 27, 1966) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He first gained recognition for the WB drama series '' Felicity'' (1998–2002), which he co-created with J. J. Abrams. Reeves came to widespread attenti ...

was announced as director. In June 2011, Jason Keller was hired to rewrite Logan's screenplay. The producers decided that the project would work better as a television series and in November 2016, Fox gave a pilot production commitment. Reeves said that the book was "not adaptable as a movie". In January 2017, Fox ordered the pilot. In August 2017, Fox Entertainment president David Madden told ''Deadline'' that there would be potential re-shoots to the pilot. In February 2018, it was revealed that there would be re-shoots of the pilot, to take place in March in Atlanta. In May 2018, Fox ordered the pilot to series.

Casting

In June 2017,

, Saniyya Sidney,

Genesis Rodriguez Génesis Rodríguez Pérez (born July 29, 1987) is an American actress and model. She began her career playing leading roles in the Telemundo telenovelas ''Prisionera'' (2004), '' Dame Chocolate'' (2007) and ''Doña Bárbara'' (2008–2009) ...

, B. J. Britt and

Jennifer Ferrin Jennifer Ferrin (born February 25, 1979) is an American actress. Early life and education Ferrin was born in Lawrenceville, Georgia. She attended Brookwood High where she was the lead in many high school plays and was a member of the choir. Up ...

were announced to have been cast in the pilot. On February 8, 2018, it was announced that the characters played by Rodriguez, Britt and Ferrin would be written out of the show and that three new characters, Tim Fanning, Nichole Sykes and Lila Kyle, would be added. On February 14, 2018, Jamie McShane was cast as Fanning while

was cast as Sykes. The next day

was cast as Kyle.

Episodes

Reception

Critical reception

The series holds an approval rating of 62% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 7.02/10 on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. The website's critical consensus reads, "Strong performances from leads Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Saniyya Sidney can't course correct ''The Passages wayward plot and feeble tone."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 62 out of 100 based on 17 critics.

Lucy Mangan Lucy Katherine Mangan''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' (born 1974) is a British journalist and author. She is a columnist, features writer and TV critic for ''The Guardian''. A major part of her writing is related t ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' praised the father–daughter dynamic between Brad and Amy and the series' execution of a "daft" storyline. Alison Herman, writing for ''The Ringer'', said that the novels were a poor fit for network television and criticized some of the show's deviations from the source material.

Ratings

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Passage (TV series), The 2010s American drama television series 2019 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings American thriller television series English-language television shows Fox Broadcasting Company original programming Television shows based on American novels Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series by Scott Free Productions Television shows set in California Television shows set in Colorado Vampires in television Post-apocalyptic television series