Between working on a Call Me By Your Name sequel, directing a Scarface remake, and adapting Lord of the Flies for the silver screen, Luca Guadagnino is busy making his first leap into episodic television with the release of HBO’s We Are Who We Are.
Released this September, the eight-episode series stars Jack Dylan Grazer and Jordan Kristine Seamón as American kids growing up on an Italian military base circa 2016. While the show’s coming-of-age themes and exploration of sexuality might draw comparisons to Call Me By Your Name, Guadagnino insists the TV show is completely different.
“I will never complain about people’s laziness, but that sounds very lazy. Call Me By Your Name is about the past seen through the prism of a cinematic narrative and this is about the here and now. This is about the bodies and souls of now. I think they are so different,” Guadagnino told Variety in a recent interview. The “here and now” refers to the 2016 US presidential election. Call Me By Your Name, in contrast, was set in the early 80s.
“The effects of the 2016 election are still being felt right here, right now. The seismic shift throughout America and the world of what it meant that Obama’s presidency was followed by Trump’s presidency and how people did not see it coming, are still being grappled with,” Guadagnino added.
Watch the first trailer for We Are Who We Are below.