Snowpiercer

Series overview

Snowpiercer is set in 2026, seven years after the world becomes a frozen wasteland due to ecocide following the launch of a chemical compound called CW-7 that aimed to cool the rapidly warming Earth, and follows the remnants of humanity who have taken shelter on a perpetually moving luxury train. Designed and built by the eccentric billionaire Mr. Joseph Wilford, the train consists of 1,001 carriages and circles the globe 2.7 times per year. The constant motion of the train provides energy and prevents the passengers from freezing as well. Since the catastrophe, the train's population has become rigidly separated by class, caught up in a revolutionary struggle against the strictly imposed social hierarchy and unbalanced allocation of limited resources. The show explores issues of class warfare, social injustice, and the politics of survival.

Season 1

Seven years after an apocalyptic event known as the Freeze, the last known survivors of humanity travel aboard Snowpiercer, the 1,001 car Great Ark Train built by Joseph Wilford of Wilford Industries. Although Wilford is believed to be controlling the train from the Eternal Engine, this is a myth perpetrated by Head Engineer Melanie Cavil in order to maintain order. In reality, Melanie abandoned Wilford at boarding, and he is presumed to be dead.

When a series of murders occur, Melanie enlists the help of Andre Layton, a Chicago homicide detective before the Freeze and the leader of the unticketed stowaways living in the tail of the train – dubbed the Tailies – to solve the murders. In secret, Layton uses the opportunity to prepare for his revolution to take control of the train. What begins as a revolution turns into a full-scale war between the classes when First Class rebels learn of Melanie's secret. With Melanie's help, Layton prevails and takes control of the train, only to have Wilford arrive on a 40 car long supply train known as Big Alice, bringing Snowpiercer to a stop in the ruins of Chicago.

Season 2

An initial confrontation with Wilford's forces ends in a draw, leaving Snowpiercer and Big Alice permanently linked. In addition, Melanie's daughter Alex is revealed to be still alive and with Wilford. With both sides unable to take the other train by force, a game of political intrigue plays out as Layton and Wilford fight for control over Snowpiercer. Melanie discovers evidence that CW-7, the chemical that caused the Freeze, is breaking up in the atmosphere, suggesting that the planet is warming much sooner than expected and she leaves the train to perform research on her theory.

Wilford eventually succeeds in taking control of Snowpiercer, leaving Melanie behind to die. However, Layton and several of his allies escape, destroying the Aquarium Car and allowing them to steal the first ten cars of the train in order to go back for Melanie. They recover Melanie's data, but find her gone, having walked out into the Freeze to die after running out of supplies. Melanie's data shows that the planet is indeed warming, with 7 promising warm spots, creating hope for a life outside of the train.

Season 3

Six months later, Snowpiercer has become a 10 car long pirate train while Big Alice has become a 1,023 car sub-zero "rolling gulag." Layton and his allies aboard Snowpiercer search the locations indicated by Melanie's data for a habitable location while his remaining allies on Big Alice mount a rebellion against Wilford. Although Layton's search proves to be mostly fruitless, he discovers a survivor named Asha and has a vision suggesting that the last warm spot in the Horn of Africa might be suitable to build a New Eden. Layton and Wilford engage in a battle that ends with Layton seizing control of both trains and imprisoning Wilford. In order to sell people on traveling to the Horn of Africa, Layton has Asha lie that he found her there.

As the trains travel to New Eden, Layton has to deal with becoming a new father and attempts on his life by his former friend and ally Pike. At the same time, Wilford survives an attempt on his own life and briefly struggles with his mortality and his future. After a coma dream featuring a dystopian future for Snowpiercer, Layton realizes that his New Eden vision was a hallucination brought on by oxygen deprivation and loses faith. Asha sacrifices herself to save Snowpiercer from a cloud of toxic gas and encourages Layton not to give up, renewing his faith.

At the end of the season, Wilford deduces that Melanie is still alive and Snowpiercer rescues her. Melanie's concerns about New Eden leads to the exposure of Layton's lie, a new conflict brewing aboard the train, and the escape of Wilford. Layton and Melanie resolve their differences once and for all and band together to banish Wilford from Snowpiercer. The passengers are then given a choice between continuing on Snowpiercer with Melanie or taking a chance on going to New Eden on Big Alice with Layton. The rough track derails Big Alice upon arrival, but New Eden proves to be habitable. Three months later, Melanie spots a rocket launching and exploding in the distance.

Season 4

The rocket launch proves to be a trap and Snowpiercer is hijacked by soldiers from the International Peacekeeping Forces led by Admiral Anton Milius. The train is brought to the Silo, a military bunker in Djibouti, where Doctor Nima Rousseau reveals to Melanie that his research team has developed a compound called Gemini that will cause CW-7 to break up and end the Freeze. Nima's research is the source of New Eden's warm spot, but he requires Snowpiercer to spread Gemini around the world. Melanie agrees to retrofit the train and work on the project, but Milius and the IPF turn Snowpiercer into a virtual labor camp for the passengers.

Nine months later, New Eden has become a thriving community led by Ruth Wardell, Layton having stepped down in favor of a democratically elected town council. However, the peace is shattered by the kidnapping of Layton's daughter Liana by the IPF and the murder of his ex-wife Zarah. With the support of the people, Layton takes Big Alice after Snowpiercer, leading to Layton and his girlfriend Josie being taken captive at the Silo where Wilford is revealed to be the mastermind behind Liana's kidnapping. After his allies escape with Big Alice and a number of rescued Snowpiercer passengers, Layton forms a reluctant alliance with Wilford to rescue Liana and take down Milius. In a final confrontation with Layton, Wilford kills himself, but not before revealing that Nima is the one who had created CW-7 and caused the Freeze. At the same time, the people of New Eden investigate a series of strange happenings, including the disappearance of Sam Roche, finding a severed hand in the hills and the Snowpiercer passenger it belongs to, ghostly voices heard by Oz in the mountains, and finally the revelation that the IPF has planted bombs to bury the town. Roche later reappears just in time to rescue Layton's family, having been captured by the IPF before managing to escape.

Nima takes control of Snowpiercer, ignoring Melanie's warnings that her data reveals that Gemini will cause atmospheric erosion and bring an end to all of the remaining life on the planet. Needing Big Alice in order to launch his rocket Icebreaker, Nima lays siege to New Eden. Although Nima succeeds in stealing the train at great cost, Layton and many New Eden residents board Snowpiercer in turn and foil Nima's attempts to bury the town in an avalanche. Inciting a rebellion amongst the remaining passengers, Layton, Melanie and their allies confront Nima in a final battle for the future of the planet. Although Nima realizes the error of his ways too late to stop the rocket launch, Alex's sabotage of Icebreaker prevents an apocalyptic disaster.

Cast and characters

Main

Jennifer Connelly as Melanie Cavill: The powerful Head of Hospitality (the department responsible for smooth relations) and the Voice of the Train (responsible for making the PA system's daily announcements) aboard Snowpiercer. To the majority of the train, Melanie is believed to be Mr. Wilford's representative relaying his orders to the passengers and crew. It is later revealed that Wilford was not initially aboard the Snowpiercer. Melanie has been facing the crushing burden of directing Snowpiercer on its global journey, managing mounting resource and class issues, having her authority and decisions challenged, and maintaining Wilford's iron order throughout the train to preserve the last of humanity. She desperately tries to maintain the myth of Wilford, which is known to only a few other passengers. Ultimately the secret is exposed, leading to a coup attempt by wealthy passengers from First Class. This coincides with a revolution by the Tail and Third Class sections, in which Melanie helps out in the end and saves it from certain defeat. After the revolution, Melanie officially hands leadership of the train to Layton and resumes her duties as Head Engineer, but her plans to remain indefinitely in the engine room are threatened by the arrival of Mr. Wilford and the surprise return of her believed dead daughter Alexandra. In the second season, Melanie departs Snowpiercer to find a place that humanity can recolonize. In the second-season finale, Layton and Alex discover that Melanie had sacrificed the last of her power to protect her data before seemingly walking into the Freeze to die. In season three, Melanie appears as a hallucination to both Alex and Wilford. It's eventually discovered that she had survived by taking a track scaler from a nearby hangar and using the suspension drug to keep herself in hibernation. After being rescued, she betrays Layton and seizes control of the Engine before agreeing to split the train, with Melanie leading those who want to stay onboard Snowpiercer.

Daveed Diggs as Andre Layton: A former detective turned leader of the Tail, a group of passengers who boarded Snowpiercer by force without tickets and are treated poorly as a result, often having their food, water, and electricity cut. As the world's only surviving homicide detective, Layton is reluctantly deputized by Melanie as Snowpiercer's Train Detective to help solve a series of murders. While investigating the mysterious killings, he gathers intelligence and allies to support a revolution by the Tail and Third Class sections. After First Class has overthrown Melanie, they start to crush Layton's revolution in a series of bloody confrontations. It is saved only after Melanie teams up with Layton in the end. After the revolution's success, she officially hands the leadership of the train to Layton, but his plans to implement a democratic government are threatened by the arrival of Mr. Wilford. At the end of the second season, Layton creates his own pirate train out of the first ten cars of Snowpiercer to resist Wilford, taking with him several of his and Melanie's most trusted loyalists. At the end of the third season, Layton takes Big Alice and several people to a habitable valley in the Horn of Africa. In season four, Layton has stepped down as the leader of humanity in favor of a democratically elected government, although he still serves as an elected member of the new town council, stating that he's a wartime general, not a peacetime leader. This allows Layton to enjoy a simpler life before the murder of Zarah and the kidnapping of Liana causes Layton to step back up as the leader of humanity against a threat that endangers the remainder of life on the planet. At the end of the series, Ruth decides to share leadership of New Eden with Layton as co-chairs of the council.

Recurring

Happy Anderson as Dr. Henry Klimpt (season 1): A research scientist-turned-doctor living in Second Class. He oversees those unfortunate enough to be sentenced to the coffin-like Drawers. He later supports Layton's revolution.

Kerry O'Malley as Lilah Folger Sr. (season 1): A First Class passenger who knew Mr. Wilford before the Freeze, and a former corporate lawyer from old money, who is fiercely protective of her own, particularly her daughter LJ and the rest of First Class, with whom she shares a vested interest in maintaining their security and privilege. Matriarch of one of First's leading families, she regularly makes complaints to Hospitality about things like etiquette in the sauna, and questions Melanie's authority when things do not go her way, though will not go so far as to challenge Wilford himself. When it is discovered Wilford is not aboard, Lilah is amongst those who position themselves to lead the new regime governing the train. She, along with her husband, are both presumed dead after the penultimate episode of season 1 when Layton, Melanie, Bennett, and Miles cut seven cars loose.

Timothy V. Murphy as Nolan Grey (season 1; guest season 2): The commander of Snowpiercer's Jackboots security force, he is a brilliant tactician and a hardened Special Forces leader, who commanded men in the British SAS before the Freeze. He relishes keeping things in order and getting his hands dirty in combat. He is presumed dead after the penultimate episode of season 1 when Layton, Melanie, Bennett, and Miles cut seven cars loose. In the second season, he reappears in flashbacks to the night the train was boarded.

Aaron Glenane as the Last Australian (seasons 1–2): A Tailie, and scrappy charmer from Perth with an intense desire to survive and have children because, as far as he knows, he is the last Australian. It's revealed that his real name is Murray, although no one calls him that. In season 2, Murray learns that he is not the last Australian as there is another Australian aboard Big Alice, Emilia, who had also believed herself to be the last. In season 3, it's mentioned that he had died of influenza during the six months that Layton was away.

William Stanford Davis as Mr. Riggs (season 1): A Tailie and devout religious man, and one of Layton's friends. He dies in the penultimate episode of season 1 when Layton, Melanie, Bennett, and Miles cut seven cars loose; Layton not having enough time to rescue his imprisoned friends.

Guest

Mark Margolis as Old Ivan (season 1): A Russian Tailie, the oldest person on Snowpiercer, Layton's mentor and a longstanding, respected member of the Tail. After celebrating his 84th birthday (possibly making him the oldest man left on Earth), he hangs himself, causing the Tail to revolt. In season 4, the Old Ivan Library in New Eden is named in his honor.

Madeleine Arthur as Nicolette "Nikki" Genêt (season 1): A Third Class passenger who was believed to be behind the first Snowpiercer murder and was locked in the Drawers as a result. With the new round of murders, she is released as a witness but remains in a catatonic state. She is later murdered by Erik Sotto, but she appears in one of Layton's nightmares while Layton is in the Drawers.

Stephen Lobo as Martin Colvin (seasons 1, 3–4): A First Class passenger who warns Melanie about the Folgers' planned revolution. He later supports Layton's revolution, by secretly providing them with a gun, as Martin does not want the Folgers or Commander Grey to take over the train. In season 3, he is a part of the crew of the pirate train, having inadvertently stowed away aboard. He later betrays Layton and the others onboard but is knocked unconscious after Bess hits him over the head. He is not seen again until season 4 where he's revealed to have remained as a passenger aboard Snowpiercer when the trains separated. After helping to stop the launch of Gemini, he moves to New Eden.

Matt Murray as Erik Sotto (season 1): A First Class private security officer and former Marine, who was hired to be the bodyguard of the Folger family during the Freeze. He is LJ's boyfriend and acts as the muscle of the Snowpiercer serial killing team before being killed himself by Jackboots.

Dylan Schmid as Patterson (season 1): A Tailie young man, Suzanne's son and Winnie's older brother. After the failed revolution, his mother gets her arm frozen off and ultimately dies of infection, leaving Patterson to lead the family. He dies in the Nightcar battle in Layton's revolution.

Sarah Strange as Suzanne (season 1): A Tailie and the mother of Patterson and Winnie, whose arm is frozen off as punishment for her daughter's role in the failed revolution. Despite her son and Josie's efforts, Suzanne later dies of an infection from her lost arm.

Episodes

Production

Development

In November 2015, Marty Adelstein's Tomorrow Studios optioned the rights to develop a television series based on the 2013 film Snowpiercer. The film had been adapted from the 1982 French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, and Jean-Marc Rochette. The film's director Bong Joon-ho was attached as an executive producer alongside Adelstein and Josh Friedman, with the latter also set to write. A year later in November 2016, the project was ordered to pilot along with backup scripts by TNT with Friedman to serve as showrunner. In May 2017, it was announced that Scott Derrickson would direct the pilot written by Friedman. The pilot was picked up to series in January 2018. Later that month, Friedman was removed from the project by TNT due to "creative differences" with the network. Graeme Manson was appointed to replace Friedman as showrunner the following month. That June, Derrickson refused to return for reshoots on the pilot due to creative disputes with Manson, explaining via Twitter:

"The 72-page Snowpiercer TV pilot script by [Josh Friedman] is the best I've ever read. The feature-length pilot I made from that script may be my best work. The new showrunner has a radically different vision for the show. I am forgoing my option to direct the extreme reshoots."

Less than two weeks later, James Hawes joined the series in July as a co-executive producer and a director to oversee the reshoots for the pilot. According to Manson, nearly nothing of the original pilot's footage was used outside of one special-effect scene, and this reshooting was the primary cause for the year-long delay in the show's premiere. Later that month, Netflix picked up the international distribution rights to stream the series outside of the United States and China. In May 2019, it was announced that the series would air on TBS instead of TNT for a spring 2020 release, and that a second season had already been ordered by the network. That month, it was also announced that Huanxi Media Group had signed on to broadcast the first two seasons exclusively in China. Manson will return as showrunner for the second season. In September 2019, the decision to change networks was reversed, with the series once again set to air on TNT. On January 19, 2021, ahead of the second-season premiere, TNT renewed the series for a third season.

On July 29, 2021, TNT renewed the series for a fourth season. On March 28, 2022, it was announced that Paul Zbyszewski is taking over as the showrunner and added as an executive producer for the fourth season. Following the formation of new parent company Warner Bros. Discovery in April 2022, original scripted content development was cut at TNT and TBS. In June, it was announced that the fourth season will be the show's final season. It was intended to be the final scripted original series to air on TNT. On January 13, 2023, it was reported that the final season would not air on TNT. Instead, it would be shopped alongside potential prequel and sequel spinoffs. On March 14, 2024, it was reported that AMC had acquired the series and planned to air the first three seasons throughout 2024 before premiering the fourth season on July 21, 2024.

Writing

The series is designed to be a reboot of the original 2013 film's continuity. The story takes place seven years after a climate catastrophe rendered the outside world uninhabitable, forcing the remnants of humanity to live confined inside of a massive train that constantly circles the globe. The series investigates class struggle, as the passengers of the train are segregated by wealth. The series star Daveed Diggs said that the show would "broaden exponentially" the world established by the film and the 1982 graphic novel. "That's one of the advantages of TV, you have time" Diggs said, "so the politics that are hinted at in the film are explored in much more depth and the mechanism of the train [is explored further] – just the little things that create a world, world specificity". At the 2017 Television Critics Association press tour, TNT and TBS president Kevin Reilly revealed that the Snowpiercer series would be akin to a "space ship show" due to its contained setting and that it would feature a mystery during the first season.

Casting

In May 2017, Daveed Diggs was cast as Andre Layton. The following month, Jennifer Connelly and Mickey Sumner landed the other lead roles of Melanie Cavill and Bess Till, respectively. Casting continued throughout the month of June with Annalise Basso as LJ Folger, Sasha Frolova as Pixi Aariak, Alison Wright as Ruth Wardell, Benjamin Haigh as Fergus McConnell, Roberto Urbina as Javi, and Katie McGuinness as Josie McConnell. That August, it was announced that Susan Park had joined the main cast as Jinju. In September, Lena Hall was cast as Sayori. The series order in January 2018 also revealed that Sheila Vand and Sam Otto had been cast in then-undisclosed roles as series regulars. Vand was reported to be playing Zarah, while Otto will play John "Oz" Osweiler. In August 2018, Iddo Goldberg and Jaylin Fletcher were added as series regulars in the roles of Bennett and Miles, respectively.

Casting for a number of recurring roles were also announced during the month of August, including Steven Ogg as Pike, Timothy V. Murphy as Commander Grey, Happy Anderson as Klimpt, Jonathan Lloyd Walker as Big John, and Aleks Paunovic as Bojan Boscovic. The following month in September, Shaun Toub and Kerry O'Malley were added to the recurring cast as Terence and Lilah Folger, respectively. In October 2018, Aaron Glenane was cast as The Last Australian alongside Fiona Vroom as Miss Gillies, both in recurring capacities. In March 2019, Rowan Blanchard was cast as Alexandra for a guest role with the option of becoming a series regular should the series be renewed for a second season. Blanchard's promotion to the main cast for the second season was confirmed with the series' renewal that May. In June 2019, Ogg was also promoted to series regular status for the second season. In October 2019, Chelsea Harris was announced in the recurring role of Sykes. Later that month, it was also announced that Sean Bean would be a series regular for the second season. In November, Tom Lipinski was added to the second season's recurring cast as Kevin. In December 2019, Sakina Jaffrey and Damian Young joined the second season's recurring cast as Mrs. and Mr. Headwood, respectively. On February 16, 2021, Archie Panjabi was cast as a new series regular for the third season. On March 4, 2021, Chelsea Harris was promoted to as a series regular for the third season.

On March 28, 2022, Clark Gregg and Michael Aronov were cast in undisclosed capacities for the fourth season.

Filming

In January 2017, it was reported that filming for the series was scheduled to begin in mid-March of that year. By September 25, pilot director Scott Derrickson indicated that production for the series had officially commenced. Reshoots for the pilot, overseen by new director James Hawes, began on August 20, 2018, in Vancouver, British Columbia and concluded on January 24, 2019. Principal photography for the second season began on October 21, 2019, in Langley, British Columbia and was originally expected to end on March 20, 2020. In March 2020, production was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lena Hall, who portrays Miss Audrey, confirmed in July 2020 that the last block of episodes for season 2—episodes 9 and 10—were being filmed. As of March 11, 2021, filming for the third season was in progress until at least July 23, 2021. Filming for the fourth season began on March 28, 2022, and concluded on August 6, 2022.

Design

Despite the series' roots as a graphic novel and film, production designer Barry Robison was told to give the train "its own identity". He conceived the massive locomotive on a "very, very long piece of paper", drawing the entire train in "about three days," then set out to construct around 20 of the 1,001 cars of various sizes over four soundstages, following TNT's orders to avoid making the train look "too sci-fi". Construction on each of the cars with contrasting classes took less than six weeks and was met with approval from series producer and film director Bong Joon-ho.

Production designer Stephen Geaghan took over design of the series in Season 2, bringing to life new elements of Snowpiercer, as well as Big Alice and New Eden, unseen in Season 1.

Release

Broadcast

The series debuted on TNT in the United States in the spring of 2020, while Netflix began to air the series globally outside of the United States and China. Huanxi Media Group is set to broadcast the first two seasons exclusively in China.

The series had originally been planned to premiere on May 31, 2020, yet was moved up to May 17, 2020, in early April. Brett Weitz, general manager for TNT, stated the earlier premiere was related to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to bring the series to viewers earlier. On October 8, 2020, at New York Comic Con, TNT announced the second season was set to premiere on January 25, 2021. The third season premiered on January 24, 2022. The fourth and final season premiered on July 21, 2024, on AMC.

In April 2026, Radial Entertainment announced that Seasons 1 through 3 were available for ad-supported streaming on Roku, Pluto TV, Tubi, and Plex, with The CW to follow later in the month, and Season 4 to come to the same platforms during the summer of 2026.

Marketing

Cast members Connelly, Diggs, Wright, Sumner, Hall, and Ogg attended the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con along with executive producers Manson, Adelstein, and Clements to promote the series and debut its first official trailer. As part of the promotion for the upcoming series, insect protein bars mimicking those from the film were made available at the event.

Reception

Critical response

The show received mixed reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes collected 82 critic reviews, identified 63% of them as positive, and reported an average rating of 6.5/10 for the first season. The website's critics consensus reads: "Snowpiercer takes a different route with its source material, crafting an ambitious sci-fi mystery with style to spare, but with little of the subversive bite of Bong Joon-ho's theatrical adaptation." Metacritic assigned the first season a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

For the second season, Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 88% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's critics consensus states: "Snowpiercer's second season picks up the momentum by dropping narrative baggage without losing its critical reflections on society." Metacritic gave the second season a weighted average score of 59 out of 100 based on 5 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".