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Halle Berry stars in the summer TV show 'Extant' – check out the trailer

Halle Berry portrays an astronaut in the new CBS series 'Extant.' Halle Berry also stars in the recently released movie 'X-Men: Days of Future Past.'

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Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Halle Berry attends the 21st Annual EIF Revlon Run/Walk for Women in Los Angeles, Calif.
  • By Sandy Schaefer Screen Rant

Zoe Saldana in the Rosemary’s Baby mini-series isn’t the only one concerned about her unborn child; on this summer’s new TV series premiere, Extant, Halle Berry is likewise worried about her latest pregnancy.

However, in the case of Berry as the astronaut Molly Woods, that’s because she encountered… well, something during a 13-month solo mission in space and doesn’t remember what happened – a bit disconcerting, when she returns to Earth and finds that her experience left her pregnant.

We now have a 30-second trailer for Extant; fortunately, while there are elements of the footage that feel a bit like “Rosemary’s Baby in space” (a la the Johnny Depp/Charlize Theron sci-fi thriller The Astronaut’s Wife), there appears to be more at play here than a body horror story disguised as science-fiction.

This preview contain hints of a larger conspiracy at work, in addition to a glimpse at the domestic drama that involves Molly’s attempts to reconnect with her husband (Goran Visnjic) and young son (Pierce Gagnon, a.k.a. the kid from Looper) after being isolated on a space station for so long.

Indeed, the trailer’s unnerving final line of dialogue, as uttered by Gagnon, calls back to the show’s teaser trailer, which emphasizes how the word “extant” means “the opposite of extinction” – thus, raising questions like: Is Molly’s unborn child the beginning of a new stage in human evolution? Might the human race suddenly be in a more immediate danger of going extinct on the show? And can we go an entire article without cracking either a Jurassic Park joke about the series’ tagline (“Life always finds a way”) or a reference to Gravity? (Well, it appears we’ve answered one of those questions already…)

While Extant was created by Mickey Fisher – a newcomer to the world of television show-running – it also has the weight of both Berry and Steven Spielberg as executive producers behind it. Not that every genre TV series with Spielberg producing manages to become either a critical and/or ratings success story – both the Spielberg-backed sci-fi program Terra Nova and the horror show The River didn’t survive very long.

However, if Extant manages to put an intriguing spin on its mix of familiar tropes, then it could become a new popular summer offering, to join the ranks of shows like the Spielberg-produced Stephen King series Under the Dome. Be sure and let us know if you already plan on giving Extanta look, based on the talent involved and what’s been shown from the series during early marketing.

Sandy Schaefer blogs at Screen Rant.

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