Alex Cross TV Series’ Aldis Hodge, EP Discuss ‘Risky’ Call to Not Adapt a Novel, Weaving in Timely Themes
Alex Cross reports for small-screen duty when Prime Video’s adaptation of the popular James Patterson novels drops all eight Season 1 episodes this Thursday, Nov. 14.
Cross stars Aldis Hodge (Leverage, Underground) as the titular D.C. detective and forensic psychologist, who is uniquely capable of digging into the psyches of killers and their victims. Following a cold open in which Alex’s wife Maria’s is tragically murdered, the action jumps forward a year, where Alex and his partner/longtime best friend John Sampson (Shadowhunters‘ Isaiah Mustafa) are tasked with looking into a possibly BLM-related death. Soon enough, though, a serial killer dubbed The Fanboy emerges, and all as Alex starts being taunted by someone who may have clues about Maria’s own killer.
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Cross also stars Juanita Jennings (Star), Alona Tal (SEAL Team), Samantha Walkes (The Kings of Napa), Jennifer Wigmore (Malory Towers), Eloise Mumford (The Right Stuff), Ryan Eggold (New Amsterdam), Caleb Elijah (True Story) and Melody Hurd (THEM).
TVLine spoke with Hodge (who’s also a producer on the already-renewed series) and showrunner Ben Watkins about the legions of Alex Cross fans that are out there, the choice to not adapt a specific novel, and more.
TVLINE | Aldis, this James Patterson character has been around for some 30 years, the first Morgan Freeman movie almost as long. When did Alex Cross first land on your radar?
ALDIS HODGE | As far as understanding and knowing about the character, I’ve known about Alex Cross since I was a kid. You can’t escape the magnitude of the Alex Cross legacy, know what I mean? Somebody said at one time, “If you’ve ever been in an airport, if you’ve ever taken a flight, you know Alex Cross.”
BEN WATKINS | So, pretty much everybody!
HODGE | Yeah, so since I was itty-bitty. But coming into this, I had read the books prior and I knew who and what Alex Cross was. But I really discovered Alex Cross, and found who he was, through the process of reading the script, and talking to Ben, and talking to James Patterson. We all discussed what we feel is important about the character, what we want the world to see, what we want to reflect really about this character. It was a beautiful process.
TVLINE | Ben, talk about the decision to not adapt one of the Alex Cross novels.
WATKINS | Looking back, it was a risky decision at the time, but a great decision. It was risky because it meant it was going to take more work and we were going to have to really match the reputation of the Alex Cross series, which is legendary.
I read the books, and had been thinking, “Which one would be good for an adaptation?” But then I started thinking that I really want to be able to take these characters and the world that’s been created and tell a story that fits our day and time, and the topics and the themes that are prominent right now. I also was thinking, optimistically, that if this series goes for a while, that’s going to be changing all the time and I would love the flexibility of being able to craft my mystery around what’s happening at the time.
I went to James Patterson and I said, “Hey, Mr. Worldwide Bestseller, I’d like to take the characters and the world, but I’d like to curate our own story.” I was a little nervous about how he would react, but he actually loved that idea. And he put it in terms that totally makes sense: “Fans of this series are going to get the characters they love. They’re going to get the world they’re familiar with. But now they’re going to get a story that’s wholly new, so it’s kind of almost a bonus.”
Season 1 is titled “Hero Complex,” where we craft a story that has to match what James Patterson set as sort of the blueprint and has the hallmarks of the Alex Cross series. The first hallmark being Alex Cross, and the second one being iconic villains who aren’t just mustache-twisting, two-dimensional characters; instead, you actually break POV and find out who they are, and that helps prop them up so you realize they’re a worthy adversary for Alex Cross.
TVLINE | Did you have any concerns about the opening case having a Defund the Police theme, if only because so many broadcast procedurals have already covered that territory? Or do you see the Alex Cross character as presenting a very unique opportunity to approach that topic?
WATKINS | I love what you just said.
HODGE | I do as well.
WATKINS | We have a show where your lead character is a detective who is a Black man that has to straddle the world where there’s tension between law enforcement and his community. Unfortunately, that topic keeps coming up because we don’t go too long without another headline where there’s something that happens that makes us question that relationship between law enforcement and the Black community. So, I approached it as, “If I do show with a Black detective and tiptoe around that reality, audiences will know I’m lying. But I don’t want to be preaching.” What we decided to do is build it into the fabric of the storyline, and the different perspectives on that conversation are baked into our characters, their stories, their voices. It’s an organic thing, and I really feel like that’s better.
HODGE | You’re right, Matt, in that the subject matter has been addressed in different ways, but the fact that the subject has not been fully dealt with means that there are other perspectives to present. And with Cross being a Black detective who stands in the middle, he’s able to present a very unique perspective we have yet to see onscreen yet. And to Ben’s point, as far as it being honest and true, this is what we live in our daily lives, so it’s less topical and more lived, because every day we walk out there with it.
TVLINE | On a much lighter note, Aldis…. Would you say that Alex is emotionally available one year after his wife’s death? Because Samantha Walkes’ character very much seems to want to be mending that broken heart of his. Alona Tal’s Kayla also seems to be a bit into him.
HODGE | [Laughs] He’s very emotional, but emotionally available…? I don’t know. And I think he’s salient enough to understand that about himself, being a forensic psychologist. He knows where his limits lie, and he is very much wrapped up in the grief of not having closure, not having answers. I love that we go on this journey. There is something romantic about this man loving his wife this much, and it’s quite exemplary to show somebody who is a representation of this type of love.
TVLINE | How uniquely twisted is The Fanboy, the serial killer you unleash inr Season 1?
HODGE | He’s got a problem, that’s for sure.
WATKINS | I had to spend some time in some dark places to come up with that, but I’m really proud with how we executed it.
HODGE | Yeah.
WATKINS | I knew I didn’t want to just have a serial killer that was derivative of the Hannibal Lecter mold; Anthony Hopkins did something so profound that he has almost made that the default for serial killers. The Fanboy started with a question, “Who is sending fan letters to the Night Stalker?” — because he was getting bags of fan mail — and if there is a “superfan” amongst those fans, who would that be? And the third question was, “If they really wanted to pay homage, how would they do it?” And that led to another question, and another question, and the next thing you know, I have this Fanboy.
Want scoop on Cross, or for any other TV show ? Shoot an email to [email protected], and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
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