First Look at ‘Duster’: J.J. Abrams, LaToya Morgan’s New Action Drama Series (Exclusive)

J.J. Abrams is back with the first project he’s co-written in six years. The Star Trek and Star Wars: The Force Awakens director has teamed with fellow writer and executive producer LaToya Morgan for a Max drama series that reunites Abrams with his Lost star Josh Holloway.

Set in 1972, the series follows the first Black female FBI agent (Rachel Hilson) as she heads to the Southwest and recruits a gutsy getaway driver (Holloway) in a bold effort to take down a growing crime syndicate (led by Keith David). But as is often the case with projects that Abrams has worked on, things aren’t quite as straightforward as they might initially seem.

The result is an upbeat and poppy retro crime thriller that warmly showcases its ’70s esthetic and features Hilson as a playfully tough Fed and Holloway being his cockily charismatic self.

For Abrams, Duster is the latest in a slew of post-Rise of Skywalker projects he’s developed and worked on, including executive producing Apple TV+s Presumed Innocent, while Morgan is a writer and producer whose credits include Showtime’s Shameless and AMC’s Turn: Washington’s Spies. The series also stars Sydney Elisabeth, Camille Guaty, Asivak Koostachin, Adriana Aluna Martinez, Benjamin Charles Watson and, of course, Abrams’ own constant, Greg Grunberg.

Included in the chat below are eight first-look photos. Read on as Abrams and Morgan break their silence about the action-drama series, ahead of Duster’s debut on Max in May.

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So how did this idea come about?

LATOYA MORGAN J.J. got ahold of scripts I had written, and he reached out and he wanted to meet. He told me that he had this image in his head that he had for about 20 years of a scene that’s in the pilot of a car racing towards a pay phone in the middle of the desert. When he told me that idea, it just sparked something and we just started pitching ideas. It was really like jazz. So we just decided in that moment we should work together on it, and the rest is history.

And can’t really find pay phones anywhere, so I guess that partly explains setting it in the 1970s. J.J., what personally excited you about this idea?

J.J. ABRAMS I had this image of a phone in the middle of the desert and a car driving up, and a guy getting on the phone to find out where he was meant to go next. It implied some kind of crazy intrigue, and I didn’t know what the answer was, but I knew it was compelling. LaToya and I started talking about who this guy might be, and I always knew there would be an FBI agent who showed up. But it wasn’t until we started talking about what her story is, that we started building this story towards something that felt twisty and turn-y and ultimately really satisfying. That became the goal: How do we tell a crazy story that actually ends up being driven towards one point and where we’re actually headed towards something that feels inevitable? Where we would have the vibe of it, the spirit of it, the sense of humor and the sense of absurdity?

This is so odd — I was fascinated by this literal phone booth in the middle of the desert around 20 years ago. LaToya, what was important to you in terms of telling this story?

MORGAN The thing that was most exciting for me was that we could do something that was a throwback to things that are not really on television anymore. You could have this fun pastiche of action and humor. It was really a chance to jump into something with both feet.

You’ve worked with many other writers and producers on different shows. What made this J.J. guy unique?

MORGAN I mean, he’s brilliant. He’s J.J.! It was an honor just to meet him—

ABRAMS [Dryly] I cannot allow this to continue.

MORGAN When we first sat down, he talked about a script of mine that he read and my writing, and I’m like, “Oh, I’m being punk’d right now.” We really have similar taste. So as we were throwing out ideas, we were just responding to what each of us was throwing out. His eye as a director is unmatched. It’s really been a dream collaboration and great to learn from his experience.

ABRAMS While she brought strong point of view and and attitude to the characters and took it in directions that sometimes challenged what we were thinking, and other times were elevating ideas. She was really a great collaborator.

It’s been a minute since you were writing in the TV space. There was an HBO sci-project that didn’t work out and doing Skywalker with Disney certainly wasn’t easy. What’s it been like for you coming back into this?

ABRAMS I’ve been working on a number of other things and producing things in the last five years. When I was doing Presumed Innocent, it was really fun to work on that as a producer and not feel like I was being pulled in eight million different directions. I’ve been working various movies that have taken a couple years to get set up. I’m in London now for a movie I start shooting in April. But to collaborate with LaToya has been a great reminder of how much fun it is to work on a series where the characters can continue to develop and surprise you as you go along. It’s been a wonderful “getting back in the saddle” experience.

In terms of your leads, what made Rachel Hilson right for this role?

MORGAN She blew us away in her audition. She’s done some really great work on Love, Victor and shows like that, but this was an opportunity for us to see her stretch. It’s a really challenging role. She’s pushing Josh’s character to the edge. So we wanted someone with toughness and intelligence, but also that beautiful vulnerability that she presents in the role. She was really a revelation.

ABRAMS Josh is such a strong actor and has such energy and personality on screen, that we knew we needed someone who could hold the screen with him and really push him. Rachel hadn’t really played anything like this before and this was a chance for her to step into a role that she could totally command.

Josh obviously has a long legacy with J.J. How did he react when he got this call? And how has he changed as an actor over the years? I mean, he somehow still looks the same, which is annoying.

ABRAMS I called him five years ago to say, “Would you ever want to do a show where you play a driver for some kind of criminal organization?” And he’s like, “Yeah.” So the whole time we were writing this, it was always with Josh in mind. He’s someone I just love working with. And with age, I think he’s gotten even more comfortable with his wry swagger and toughness, and also vulnerability and being unsure of himself. It’s a tough balancing act. He’s a great-looking guy, but he’s genuinely funny and big hearted and he brings that to the character.

MORGAN He has such natural charm and gravitas. I was a fan of him since since Lost. But it’s also great to see him No. 1 on the call sheet. He’s a great leader for all the rest of the cast and the crew.

What was it about this time period that was appealing?

MORGAN There was the fun in the obsolescence of things. I love CB radios and car culture and car chases and the music of the time. We wanted to lean into all those things. And there’s a thriller aspect to this show. There’s a mystery at the heart of it. There are mysteries that I won’t spoil. It’s a chance to do a combination of those things and set it in a time period that a lot of people are familiar with, and, for the folks that aren’t, it’s a chance to introduce them to the fun of that time.

You mentioned mysteries. Obviously J.J., you helped pioneer the narrative “mystery box” — a term you probably hate at this point. But this appears to be a pretty straightforward story for the most part, or am I making a wrong assumption on that front?

ABRAMS It isn’t straightforward. There are a lot of things that you don’t expect. What I love about the show, and what I think LaToya and I had the most fun with, is you never quite know, when you open a door, what kind of unexpected criminal mind is going to be behind it. The most satisfying thing for me was seeing how so many these elements — some of which seem crazy and out there — end up actually serving a real narrative purpose. Also, every episode feels like it’s ending on a fun cliffhanger vibe that you get from serialized comics. When we were doing the first couple seasons of Alias, it was so much fun because every episode ended with like a definitive cliffhanger. We ultimately got told by the network that we had to stop doing that because it was harder to put a show into syndication if it was that linear. But that’s a thing that’s really fun about this show.