The Peripheral arrives on Prime Video on October 21, and the cast — Chloë Grace Moretz, Gary Carr, T’Nia Miller, and JJ Feild — had a chance to talk about the show ahead of its premiere. Andrea Towers sat with them in the TV Insider and TV Guide Magazine New York Comic Con 2022 suite to discuss what attracted them to the sci-fi series, memorable moments on set, and who would survive the series’ virtual setting in real-life.
“For me, it was William Gibson, Jonathan Nolan, and Lisa Joy — those are three incredibly hard hitters in sci-fi,” Moretz said about why she joined the cast. Author William Gibson wrote the 2014 novel of the same name, while Nolan and Joy (creators of Westworld) serve as executive producers of The Peripheral.
The series follows Flynne (Moretz) and Burton (Jack Reynor) seeking out a living in their Blue Ridge Mountains community by beating levels of simulation video games for high-paying customers. But when Burton gets the chance to beta-test a new simulation, Flynne gets involved in a mission within the simulation: a mission to steal a valuable secret from a corporation known as the Research Institute.
Wilf Netherton is “known as a publicist in the novel, which I think is a nice way of saying fixer, which is what he is,” Carr explains about his character. “He liaises with society’s elites, and one of the characters he’s closest to is Lev, played by JJ.” Meanwhile, Moretz says of her character, “she’s a young woman in North Carolina who puts on a headset one day thinking that she’s jacking into a simulation game, and then we start to realize she’s operating a real body in future London.”
When asked who could survive a VR world, avid Call of Duty and racing sim enthusiast Moretz admitted, “I play a lot of video games, so I feel like I have a little bit of an edge for it, I’m ready. I like to beat the s**t out of people. Apocalypse, here I come.”
Watch the full video interview with the cast above.
The Peripheral, Series Premiere, Friday, October 21, Prime Video