‘Fellow Travelers’ Teaser: Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer Find Forbidden Love

Samantha Bergeson
·2 min read
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Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer are about to become entangled in an epic romance amid a devastating political background.

Limited series “Fellow Travelers” begins in 1952 with the night Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected President. Matt Bomer stars as handsome, charismatic Hawkins Fuller, who maintains a financially rewarding, behind-the scenes career in politics during McCarthy-era Washington. Hawkins avoids emotional entanglements – until he meets Tim Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey), a young man brimming with idealism and religious faith. They begin a romance just as Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn declare war on “subversives and sexual deviants,” initiating one of the darkest periods in 20th century American history, per the official synopsis.

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Over the course of four decades, audiences follow the five main characters – Hawk, Tim, Marcus (Jelani Alladin), Lucy (Allison Williams), and Frankie (Noah J. Ricketts) – as they cross paths through the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the drug-fueled disco hedonism of the 1970s, and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, while facing obstacles in the world and in themselves.

“Fellow Travelers” is created by Oscar nominee Ron Nyswaner (“Philadelphia,” “Homeland”) and is based on the romance political thriller by Thomas Mallon.

Showrunner Nyswaner and lead star Bomer executive produce with Robbie Rogers. Daniel Minahan executive produces and directs the first two episodes. The series is co-produced by Fremantle with Showtime.

Actor Bailey told Vanity Fair that he had been waiting for a role like “Fellow Travelers.”

“My answer was always, ‘Well, I’d love to do a sweeping gay love story,’ but my experience actually was that I’d never really seen them,” Bailey said. “Or if I had, I hadn’t seen actors like me and Matt play those roles.”

The “Bridgerton” alum added, “The nuance of a complicated, volatile queer relationship is the power balance — and that is what is amazing about Tim and Hawk. Every single sex scene is a meticulous examination of power. I will be so interested to see how people respond to it. To me, being queer also is about, as two men, how you negotiate your giving of your body to the other person. That is something that I’ve always yearned to see properly done because I know how extraordinary it is to experience it.”

“Fellow Travelers” is coming soon to Paramount+ with Showtime. Check out the teaser below.

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