EPIX
In recent years, EPIX has been quietly putting out some excellent TV — its new series War of the Worlds is just the latest example. This new sci-fi thriller based on H.G. Wells’ classic novel of the same name premieres Sunday, February 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
If you don’t have cable, you can watch War of the Worlds live or on-demand on your computer, phone, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV or other streaming device via one of the following live-TV streaming services:
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Amazon Prime’s Epix Channel
If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber or you want to start a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime, you can watch all live and on-demand Epix content via the Amazon Epix Channel, which comes with a seven-day free trial:
Once you’re signed up for both Amazon Prime and the Epix channel, you can then watch War of the Worlds either live as it airs or on-demand anytime after.
For either option, you can watch on your computer via the Amazon website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 or other streaming device via the Amazon Video app.
AT&T TV Now
AT&T TV Now (formerly DirecTV Now) offers six different channel packages, while Epix can be added to any bundle as an extra. If you add Epix to either the “Plus” or “Max” channel bundle, all of it will come with a free seven-day trial:
Once signed up for AT&T TV Now, you can watch War of the Worlds live as it airs, or you can watch it on-demand anytime after.
You can watch on your computer via the AT&T TV Now website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, or other compatible streaming device via the AT&T TV app.
Sling TV
Epix is available as its own standalone package through Sling TV, meaning you can sign up for Epix whether or not you also sign up for one of Sling TV’s main “Sling Orange” or “Sling Blue” channel bundles. As such, you can get Epix for a total of $5 per month through Sling, which is the cheapest option if you plan on keeping it long term:
Once signed up for Sling TV, you can watch War of the Worlds live or on-demand on your computer via the Sling TV website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the Sling TV app.
‘War of the Worlds’ Preview
This new sci-fi drama is being produced as a joint venture between Fox Network Group and StudioCanal, a French film production company. It actually already aired in France in October and November of 2019 on CanalPlus. The series is a new take on H.G. Wells’ classic novel of the same name, which has been adapted dozens of times over the years in the form of radio plays, movies, TV shows, and TV miniseries.
War of the Worlds stars Lea Drucker as Catherine Durand, an astronomer in France who detects a signal coming from red dwarf star Ross 128. Soon afterward, a large group of meteors begins striking major cities all around the globe. The meteors actually turn out to be spacecraft whose inhabitants kill a huge percentage of the population.
In London, Helen (Elizabeth McGovern) fights to save her son, Dan (Michael Marcus), while her ex-husband Bill (Gabriel Byrne) tries desperately to get home to his family from working in France.
As survivors emerge from this extraterrestrial attack, they must try to figure out how to navigate this brave new world. But it won’t be quite as post-apocalyptic as other adaptations of the novel. This one is going for more of a quiet terror.
“We didn’t want a post-apocalyptic feel with rubble and all that. We wanted the cities to look as they do now, and that’s very important in terms of getting inside the characters’ heads. If you look out your window and the city still looks the same, it’s a stranger experience, because your life has totally changed but outside it’s all very still and familiar,” creator Howard Overman told Variety in an October 2019 interview.
Furthermore, this War of the Worlds is not designed to be a one-off. CanalPlus’ head of drama Fabrice de la Patelliere told Variety that they designed a “multi-season narrative,” using Wells’ novel merely as the jumping-off point.
“This is War of the Worlds adapted for the world of 2020,” said de la Patelliere. “That was the bet, to do this as a multi-season narrative and not as a one-off limited series. We took the concept of the book, and used it as a launch pad into a series that could run several seasons.”
“I wanted to do a modern adaption of the work. I wasn’t really interested in adapting the historical novel [so I used the framework of] an alien invasion to explore would that could mean for us today,” added Overman.
War of the Worlds airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on EPIX.
A previous version of this article misidentified McGovern and Byrne’s character names. That has been corrected.
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