The Weeknd has always attempted to create visually appealing music videos and graphics, especially during the experimental After Hours phase. He is now developing his narrative skills for the movie.
The singer, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, is creating, co-writing, and starring in the HBO series The Idol. The drama, which Sam Levinson, director of Euphoria, and Reza Fahim, Tesfaye’s creative producer, created, will center on a female popstar who “tarts a romance with an enigmatic L.A. club owner who is the leader of a secret cult.”
A six-episode season of the series, to be filmed in and around Los Angeles, has officially been given the go-ahead by HBO. According to Francesca Orsi, executive vice president of HBO drama programming, “when the multi-talented Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye, Reza Fahim, and Sam Levinson brought us The Idol, it was clear their subversive, revelatory take on the cult of the music industry was unlike anything HBO had ever done before.”
Here is everything we currently know about the series.
The first episode of the series will air in 2023.
The Idol will premiere on HBO some time in 2023, according to a brand-new official teaser released by the network. The show’s impressive ensemble and spooky atmosphere are hinted at in the teaser.
The Idol centers on a young celebrity who gets feelings for a shadowy cult leader.
During a stop on his “After Hours Til Dawn” tour in New Jersey, Tesfaye unveiled a sneak preview of the forthcoming performance. Lily-Rose Depp’s pop diva (played in the teaser trailer below) is drawn into the orbit of Tesfaye’s character in the narrative from the “twisted brains” of Levinson and Tesfaye.
Following the release of the teaser video, The Weeknd also revealed a closer look at himself in the role for the series.
Lily-Rose Depp, Troye Sivan, and The Weeknd are all part of the cast.
For the series, The Idol has enlisted a group of up-and-coming actors and a musician from real life. Tesfaye will co-star alongside Depp (The King), who will portray a budding pop star who becomes involved in a “complicated relationship” with the cult leader. Troye Sivan, a musician, will also appear often in the series.
The rest of the incredibly packed cast is revealed in a new trailer (seen above), and they include Suzanna Son (Red Rocket), singer Moses Sumney, Jane Adams (Hacks), Dan Levy (Schitt’s Creek), Eli Roth (Inglorious Basterds), Rachel Sennot (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Hari Nef (Transparent), Da’Vine Joy Randolph (High Fidelity), star producer Mike Dean, Ramsey, Hank Azaria, and BLACKPINK member Jennie, going by Jennie Ruby Jane.
A top-notch production crew is behind the show.
Ashley Levinson (Malcolm & Marie, Bombshell), Kevin Turen (Those Who Wish Me Dead), Aaron L. Gilbert (Joker), and Reza Fahim (The Weeknd’s producing partner and co-creator of the series) are a few of the producers engaged in the project. Wassim “SAL” Slaiby, La Mar C. Taylor, co-founder of XO Records, and Mary Laws (of Succession), who is also writing, serve as co-executive producers.
Tesfaye has been on several major motion pictures. He made an appearance as a 2012 version of himself in the 2019 film Uncut Gems by the Safdie brothers. He authored and appeared in a guest spot in an American Dad episode in 2020.
