Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey has announced that he will be joining the cast of Fellow Travelers, an upcoming Showtime romantic drama set in 1950s D.C. amidst complicated political turmoil and conflicting world views. Bailey will star alongside – and as the love interest to – Matt Bomer, whose previous roles include Felix Turner in The Normal Heart (2014) and Ken in Magic Mike (2012) and its sequel.
Fellow Travelers was initially inspired by a Thomas Mallon novel of the same name. Originally published in 2008, the novel Fellow Travelers follows Tim Laughlin, a recent graduate from Fordham University ready to take on the world of post-WWII era McCarthy-ism and continue the fight against communism – until, that is, he meets Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller, a handsome State Department official who avoids any and all kinds of commitment. As Tim and Hawk steadily grow closer and eventually begin a secret love affair, the strength of both their individual character and their relationship will become tested under the weight of McCarthy’s war against “sexual subversives” and the political turmoil rocking Washington, D.C., and the world beyond it.
What we know about Jonathan Bailey’s role in “Fellow Travelers”
Jonathan Bailey has announced that he will star as Laughlin opposite Matt Bomer’s Fuller in what TVLine describes as “an epic love story and political thriller, chronicling the volatile romance of two very different men who meet in the shadow of McCarthy-era Washington.” Though the focus seems to be on 1950s Washington, the eight-episode limited series, like the novel before it, will follow the two lovers through four decades, from the Vietnam War to the hedonistic, disco-fueled 70s and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s.
Fellow Travelers on Showtime was initially given a pilot order in April 2022 and will begin production later this month in Toronto, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Bomer will double as an executive producer of the series alongside creator Ron Nyswaner (The Painted Veil), Robbie Rogers (Love, Simon), and Daniel Minahan (Game of Thrones).
