The Hot Zone will return later this year!
National Geographic has confirmed Thanksgiving weekend as the airdate for its limited series, The Hot Zone: Anthrax, starring Daniel Dae Kim and Tony Goldwyn.
The three-night event will premiere Sunday, November 28.
The Hot Zone Season 1 focused on the Ebola outbreak and became the network’s most-watched scripted series ever.
“With the world still reeling after the attacks on 9/11, America faces a second wave—the anthrax letters,” reads the official logline.
“Targeting journalists and politicians, mail with anthrax powder kills five people and causes panic across the United States.”
The series follows FBI Special Agent Matthew Ryker (Kim) as he tracks down the killer, finding himself ensnared in an unstable web of psychological warfare.
Bruce Ivins (Goldwyn) is the brilliant microbiologist who becomes embroiled in the hunt.
The six-hour scientific thriller follows last year’s The Hot Zone, which was National Geographic’s most-watched scripted series of all time.
For second chapter, Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson serve as executive producers and showrunners.
Scott Free Production’s Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker are executive producers, with Jordan Sheehan also serving as executive producer. Lynda Obst is an executive producer.
Richard Preston is a co-executive producer on the series. The series is produced by 20th Television and Scott Free Productions.
“Tony and Daniel are both wonderfully versatile and dimensional actors who will bring complexity and depth to these characters,” said Carolyn Bernstein, executive vice president of scripted and documentary films, National Geographic when the series was ordered.
“We can’t wait for their star turns in this startling, authentic and timely scientific thriller.”
Goldwyn joins the series as Bruce Ivins, a brilliant microbiologist who becomes embroiled in the hunt to find the 2001 anthrax killer.
While he works closely with the FBI to uncover who is behind the deadly anthrax letters, his growing instability and paranoia give way to even deeper and unnerving discoveries.
Kim will portray Matthew Ryker, an FBI agent with a specialty in microbiology, who, just three weeks after the 9/11 attacks, risks his career to convince his superiors of the unthinkable, that the United States is under attack again.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.