HBO's The Plot Against America Reimagines WWII With Fascist Leader As President

HBO has a new limited-series coming this March that rewrites history. The Plot Against America focuses on the political rise of Charles Lindbergh, dragging America towards fascism, based on the book of the same name by Philip Roth.

Revealed at the TCA winter press tour, the six-part limited series is created by David Simon and Ed Burns, the minds behind HBO's The Wire and Generation Kill. The Plot Against America "imagines an alternate American history during World War II, told through the eyes of a working-class Jewish family in New Jersey as they endure the political rise of Charles Lindbergh, an aviator-hero and xenophobic populist, who captures the presidency and turns the nation toward fascism," according the synopsis from a recent press release.

The series stars Zoe Kazan (The Deuce), Morgan Spector (Boardwalk Empire), Winona Ryder (Stranger Things), John Turturro (Tranformers), Anthony Boyle (The Lost City of Z), Azhy Robertson (Marriage Story), and Caleb Malis. Ben Cole will be in a supporting role, playing Charles Lindbergh.

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"As one of our greatest novelists, Philip Roth was generally more known for narratives that went directly to the human heart and the human condition," says Simon, who was able to meet with Roth once to discuss the project before the novelist’s death in 2018. "But with 'Plot,' he delivered an emotionally moving political tract about our country taking a dry run at totalitarianism and intolerance. That it was published in 2004 makes it no less prescient a document at this moment in time. Roth was warning us that it can happen here. And it can."

Burns and Simon will write the series, with Minkie Spiro (Downton Abbey) serving as director Episodes 1-3. Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing) will direct the final three parts of the series.

The Plot Against America comes to HBO on March 16 at 9 PM ET/PT.

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