Culture

Watch the trailer for Ryan Murphy’s groundbreaking new LGBTQ show Pose

By Daniel Megarry

13th April 2018

The first trailer for LGBTQ-themed show Pose has been released, and it looks fierce.

Ryan Murphy, the TV mastermind behind hit shows Glee and American Horror Story, is adding yet another series to his plate with Pose, a mid-80s period piece focusing in part on ball culture in New York City.

According to Deadline, Pose will be set in 1986 and “examines the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in New York City: the emergence of the luxury Trump-era universe, the downtown social and literary scene and the ball culture world”.

Ball culture refers to an underground LGBTQ subculture in the United States, especially prominent in New York City in the 80s, where queer people compete for trophies and prizes at events known as balls.

The scene was brought to the world’s attention in iconic 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning, and is regularly drawn upon for inspiration by reality behemoth RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Check out the trailer below.

Besides looking like an essential piece of viewing, the series is also making history by featuring the largest amount of trans actors in series regular roles of any scripted TV series in history.

They are MJ Rodriguez, Indya Moore, Dominique Jackson, Hailie Sahar, and Angelica Ross, and they’ll all be playing transgender characters. The announcement of their roles followed a six-month nationwide search by casting director Alexa Fogel.

The series will also feature the largest recurring LGBTQ cast ever for a scripted US TV series.

Joining the aforementioned actors are Evan Peters, Kate Mara, James Van Der Beek, Ryan Jamaal Swain, Billy Porter, and Dyllon Burnside.

Behind the scenes, co-creator Steven Canals has been writing scripts for the series alongside Transparent writer and producer Our Lady J and trans activist and author Janet Mock.

Pose debuts on FX in the US on 3 June. A premiere date for the UK has not yet been announced.