Today at the cable press tour, WGN America presented their upcoming drama Salem, featuring genre favorites like Shane West, Janet Montgomery, Seth Gabel, and Xander Berkeley.
WGN America has also released some promo images from the series premiere, as well as some key art, which you can see below. A press release with more details follows.
Here is how they describe the show.
Set in the volatile world of 17th century Massachusetts, Salem explores what really fueled the town’s infamous witch trials and dares to uncover the dark, supernatural truth cloaked behind the veil of this infamous period in American history. In Salem, witches are real, but they are not who or what they seem to be. The show, which centers on an epic romance wrapped around this explosive revelation, delivers a bold new vision of Salem – and an even bolder new vision of witches.
In WGN America’s first original drama, Mary Sibley presides over the town of Salem as its most powerful sorceress and the wife of George Sibley, the elderly, ailing, and very wealthy head of the Selectmen of Salem. With many secrets to hide, the ruthless yet vulnerable Mary must rely on her mysterious and ageless accomplice, Tituba, to help carry out her agenda. Mary’s life is turned upside down when Salem’s native son – and Mary’s long-ago love interest – John Alden returns from years at war to find the community in the grip of witch-hunt hysteria. The level-headed, war- hardened John is a voice of reason in a village plagued by unexplained phenomena and the fear and suspicions that result. Fanning the flames of the witch panic is local aristocrat Cotton Mather, who dedicates himself to ridding Salem of evil – by any means necessary. As Mary deals with the astonishing return of her one-time beloved and the consequences of witch-hunt fever reverberate through the town, she and John are thrust into a world where horror, hysteria, and the supernatural reign.
“Salem” stars Janet Montgomery (“Made in Jersey”) as Mary Sibley, Shane West (“Nikita”) as John Alden, Seth Gabel (“Fringe”) as Cotton Mather, Tamzin Merchant (“Jane Eyre”) as Anne Hale, Ashley Madekwe (“Revenge”) as Tituba, Xander Berkeley (“The Mentalist”) as Magistrate Hale, and Elise Eberle (“The Astronaut Farmer”) as Mercy Lewis.
The series, created and written by award-winning producers Brannon Braga (“24,” “Star Trek: TNG, Voyager & Enterprise”) and Adam Simon (“The Haunting in Connecticut”)hails from Fox 21 (“Homeland,” “Sons of Anarchy”), the cable production division of Twentieth Century Fox Television. Braga and Simon will serve as executive producers alongside Prospect Park’s Josh Barry and Jeff Kwatinetz.
