Netflix offers first look at new series starring actor Josh Hartnett set in N.L.

Netflix has released new still images of Below, the upcoming series filmed and set in Newfoundland and Labrador, developed with local writers and directors on the production team.

Netflix offers first look at new series starring actor Josh Hartnett set in N.L. Below is scheduled to premiere Oct. 8 Netflix has released new still images of Below, the upcoming series filmed and set in Newfoundland and Labrador, developed with local writers and directors on the production team. The six-episode series is centred on the character of Calvin Penney, a fisherman, played by Josh Hartnett, who lives in a small town where "an unidentified sea creature" begins to terrorize residents. That's per a post on Tudum, a Netflix-created site featuring news on Netflix productions.

The production was driven by creator Jesse McKeown, who has also worked as a writer on The Umbrella Academy and 19-2. “I just always felt like I wanted to set something here, that this would be a great place for something big and something kind of epic," McKeown told Tudum. "It’s such a unique landscape and such a rugged, dangerous, isolated, scary place in a lot of ways.

But then there’s also this other side to it, which is that the community is so warm and the people are so funny and unique and there are so many eccentricities about the place.” Charlie Heaton plays Hartnett's son Wade. Heaton is perhaps best known for his role as Jonathan Byers on hit-Netflix series Stranger Things.

Mackenzie Davis (Station Eleven, Speak No Evil) also stars, as a marine researcher visiting the community. If anything from the series sounds or looks to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians like they're hitting close to home, it's likely tied to the contributions from local television and film industry professionals. Amongst the cast, Newfoundland and Labrador's own Willow Kean (The King Tide, Away From Everywhere) is a series regular playing Ruth Penney, while Mary Walsh has teased her own appearance in the series as the mayor of the small town who also owns the local bar.

"We had such a good time. It's so great," Walsh said in a separate social media video posted by a Netflix account. The writing team and list of episode directors both also include home-grown talent.

Perry Chafe (Saint-Pierre), for example, is one of the writers and Stephen Dunn (Closet Monster) is an episode director. The writing team also includes Karen Walton (Orphan Black) and Natty Zavitz (Edging), while Jamie Childs (The Sandman, His Dark Materials) and Helen Shaver (The Penguin, Station Eleven) have also directed. The show is scheduled for release on Oct. 8.

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