AMC Networks’ first traditionally animated series, Pantheon, premieres Thursday, 1 September with weekly episodes on AMC+. It is a sci-fi drama based on a collection of short stories by award-winning author Ken Liu.
This thrilling speculative is centered on a bullied teen (Katie Chang) who receives mysterious help from someone online: a stranger soon revealed to be her recently deceased father, David (Daniel Dae Kim), whose consciousness has been uploaded to the Cloud following an experimental destructive brain scan. David is the first of a new kind of being – an “Uploaded Intelligence” or “UI” – but he will not be the last, as a global conspiracy unfolds that threatens to trigger a new kind of world war.
Pantheon explores the outer limits of what we and our technology are capable of creating and destroying, focusing on the “uploading” of human consciousness into the cloud. It explores the theme of technology through the lens of family, focusing on both the people whose brains have been digitally uploaded, and the loved ones they’ve left behind. Ultimately, Pantheon challenges our understanding of what it means to be human.
The all-star voice cast features Daniel Dae Kim (Lost, Hawaii Five-O) as David, Katie Chang (The Bling Ring) as Maddie, Paul Dano (Escape at Dannemora) as Caspian, Rosemarie DeWitt (Little Fires Everywhere) as Ellen, Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight) as Cary, Taylor Schilling (Orange Is The New Black) as Renee, Ron Livingston (A Million Little Things) as Waxman, Chris Diamantopoulos (Silicon Valley) as Pope, Raza Jaffrey (Homeland) as Chanda, and William Hurt (Black Widow, Goliath) as Stephen Holstrom.
Other voice actors for the series include Scoot McNairy, Anika Noni Rose, Maude Apatow, Corey Stoll, Michael Kelly, Grey Griffin, SungWon Cho, Kevin Durand, Samuel Roukin, Krystina Alabado, Lara Pulver, Madhur Jeffrey, Heather Lind, Nyima Funk, Tunde Adebimpe, Quinn Hawking, Clyde Kusatsu, Ken Leung, Jacob Sartorius, Vincent Ventresca, Julian Lerner, Magnus McLain, Ajay Mehta, Annabella Sciorra, and Suraj Sharma.
Craig Silverstein (Turn, Nikita) is writer, creator, showrunner and executive producer. Animation is by Titmouse (Motorcity, Big Mouth, Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head). Executive producers for Titmouse are Chris Prynoski, Shannon Prynoski, Antonio Canobbio, Ben Kalina and Juno Lee.
Episode descriptions:
Episode 101 – Pantheon – Premieres 1 September on AMC+
Maddie, a bullied teen, receives help from a stranger online; Caspian, a teen loner and math genius struggles with his parents’ toxic relationship; Chanda, a computer engineer, secretly meets with a rival tech giant.
Episode 102 – Cycles – Premieres 8 September on AMC+
Ellen fights with Logorhythms over control of David’s consciousness; Maddie learns the truth about her father’s death and meets a stranger who wants to help; Caspian stumbles on Maddie’s crisis on the dark web; A new consciousness is uploaded.
Episode 103 – Reign of Winter– Premieres 15 September on AMC+
Chanda’s life is on a loop; Maddie and David make up for time lost; Ellen tries to move on from her dead husband; Caspian watches his parents’ marriage disintegrate while trying to start a romance of his own.
Episode 104 – The Gods Will Not Be Chained – Premieres 22 September on AMC+
David learns how to maximize his power from an unlikely source; Maddie and Ellen find out they aren’t alone; Cary questions the plan; Caspian gets closer to Hannah and the truth; Chanda seeks revenge.