While Amazon’s new “Tales from the Loop” series shares many characteristics with Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” heavily featuring young actors, sci-fi and a mysterious unknown force called “The Upside-down” — whoops, we meant to say “The Loop” — the series was actually inspired by the work of a Swedish artist, Polygon reports.
Digital artist Simon Stålenhag creates artwork that contrasts fantasy and sci-fi elements like dragons or robots with a dull suburban countryside, The Verge reports.
In 2013, Stålenhag began posting art from his book “Tales from the Loop,” which centers on a universe where a massive underground particle accelerator called “The Loop” brings elaborate machines and mysterious events to a small Swedish suburbia, according to The Verge. The concept was so fantastical, RPG game fans created a kickstarter game based on “Tales from the Loop” in 2016.
The art concept sounds perfect for the screen, doesn’t it? Amazon thought so, too. The new series, which premieres April 3 on Amazon Prime Video, places Stålenhag’s suburbia in the American midwest for a sci-fi series also named “Tales from the Loop.”
The trailer centers on the journey of a young boy, Cole, played by Duncan Joiner, according to IMDB, to understand his world after “The Loop” makes strange things possible that were previously impossible.
Stålenhag is eagerly cooperating with Amazon to produce the series, and even made special art to help advertise the show.