The forthcoming content of American drama series Quantico, which stars Indian actress Priyanka Chopra, will deal with US President Donald Trump's immigration policy and 'Muslim registry' instead of terrorism, says showrunner Josh Safran.
Quantico has shifted its lens away from fantasy in a bid to reflect more of today's real-life political climate and cultural landscape. The series, the narrative of which is switching between the past and present, is now merged into one single story.
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Quantico season two returned this week after a break internationally and in India. The show airs in India on Star World and Star World HD.
Asked whether there were too many shows tackling Trump on TV, Safran said: "We're not special."
"If it's a time of good prosperity, often we don't look to politics to write about, we look to write about different times or different period of strife in people's lives. But when there's political upheaval or unrest in the county, artists tend to skew towards politics and how they relate to people. That's why you're seeing so many shows turning in that direction," hollywoodreporter.com quoted Safran as saying.
Safran says it is liberating to not have to invent so many stories and villains, since the real world is providing the material. But he notes one important distinction.
"I look to 'The Good Fight' and their recent episode about the shelved SVU episode about Trump — they took something very specific and turned that into a story.
"Instead of doing an over-arching, 'We're going to do Trump', we're looking at specific things, like fake news and the Muslim registry," he said.
While Safran is grateful to be working on a show where he is able to tackle real life head-on, he says it's "probably unlikely" that a lot of Trump supporters are tuning into Quantico, reports hollywoodreporter.com.
"It's a show about inclusion and where the women have what would have been typically male roles. It's all about people of colour working together to do what's right," he added.
"We believe in women in power and everyone's equal and freedom for all. We don't exactly stand for Trumpian instincts by our very nature. You'll probably find that '24: Legacy' and partially 'Designated Survivor', which takes more of a bipartisan look at things, have more of a viewership that voted for Trump or who are pro-Trump than us."
