Demonic Possession

Forget John Constantine, there’s a new exorcist in town. Kyle Barnes (Patrick Fugit) is not your average exorcist. Adapted from the comic series of the same name, Outcast will be hitting Cinemax in 2016. Creator Robert Kirkman best know for his work on The Walking Dead, wrote an open letter to fans.

There are certain ways to tell a story and certain mechanics that work well in comics that don’t work well on television and vice versa. In TV, you have motion and sound, you can expand on and change things in very cool ways that wouldn’t have worked on the page. That’s the fun part, the challenge—thinking about moving images, actors, sound.

Outcast is an epic story, and it only becomes more so on TV. Kyle is your average everyday human—aside from the fact that he’s been tormented by demonic possession. There’s The Exorcist, but the exorcism genre is open to a dramatic, realistic interpretation in the same way that the zombie epic was when The Walking Dead began. We’ll use tropes to develop deeper character stories. For me, it’s always about the people and their struggles because that’s the stuff that matters.

Writing Outcast was the first time I’ve started a comic knowing exactly what the benchmarks are, where I’m going and how it all wraps up, which is a pretty exciting prospect. I always referred to the Outcast comic as “horror epic,” and I think this series will live up to that as well.

There’s a lot to do before the show launches, but until then, I want to thank you all for being fans and being excited about this translation. Keep checking back here for updates—we’ve only just begun.

via Cinemax

Your exclusive new look at #Outcast, coming to @Cinemax in 2016. https://t.co/rnc2sZuJGy

— Outcast Cinemax (@OutcastCinemax) October 10, 2015

.@OutcastCinemax is coming 2016. Learn more about the series and what to expect at https://t.co/ldSwVRfhoA. pic.twitter.com/QiOv6UU2Bb

— Cinemax (@Cinemax) November 17, 2015