‘Lovecraft Country’ Book vs HBO TV Show Differences

• HBO’s new series Lovecraft Country is based upon the book of the same name by Matt Ruff, which was released in 2016.
• Showrunner Misha Green says Ruff’s book was “a beautiful jumping-off point” for the series.
• Here are all the biggest changes, and points of comparison, between HBO’s Lovecraft Country and the novel by Matt Ruff.

When author Matt Ruff ‘s pulpy, historical fiction/sci-fi/horror/fantasy genre-bender of a novel Lovecraft Country was released in 2016, it was n’t immediately a massive reach. The script was well-received, and while it was successful in genre circles, it did n’t quite land on any New York Times best seller lists. But the right people saw it, intelligibly, because in 2017 Jordan Peele ‘s Monkeypaw Productions brought the ledger to J.J. Abrams ‘ Bad Robot Productions, and together it was decided this was the justly mix for a big ol ‘ television receiver show. And while the major names of Peele and Abrams were the headliners when the series was first announced, it ‘s Misha Green who ‘s running the express. Green, a talented writer who ‘s former project was the underestimate and critically-acclaimed series Undergound, is Lovecraft Country ‘s showrunner. In a Q+A sent to press by HBO, Green explained how she was working on Underground when her agents suggested that she might want to adapt a reserve called Lovecraft Country. “ I was blown away, ” she said. “ I thought, ‘ I want to explore these characters and their journeys. ’ I was besides in truth into the idea of reclaiming the writing style space for those who ’ ve typically been left out of it. I said, ‘ I ’ thousand ready to make this into an epic television appearance. ’

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The very idea of k running Lovecraft Country is an interesting one with a set of potential. While the Lovecraft Country book was well-received when it was published, it remains the fib of a Black class during the Jim Crow era being told by an author, Ruff, who is white. green, a Black womanhood, feels like a stronger fit to not only inherit Ruff ‘s informant material, but adjust and expand upon it for the blind. Green added in HBO ‘s Q+A that she basically used Ruff ‘s book and his characters as “ a beautiful jumping-off point ” for the television receiver series.
“ My strategy was to take all of its dope, cool stuff and write new dumbbell, cool stuff, ” she said, laughing. “ There was a never a sense of ‘ Let ’ s bank this for later. ’ When you have 10 people in a room, you ’ rhenium always able to come up with raw ideas. The finish was to deepen the characters and the stories. ” By and large, Lovecraft Country ‘s floor remains the like, with the lapp overarch tentpole events—to a point. While a lot of what the floor is adapting remains basically the like, by about the halfway point of the series, the book is covered ( with the exception of the ending ). By sequence 6, when the display ‘s central action moves to a Korean war flashback, the report is on chartless ground. The display ‘s ending finishes reasonably in the same place as the book, but with a few major, major changes. As with any adaptation, there are changes, some more significant than others—and about always for the better, benefitting either fictional character or history. sometimes this comes through smaller things like dialogue, character names, and details, and other times its major events that can largely shift the plot in completely different directions. With Season 1 entirely covering the plot of the Lovecraft Country book, anywhere the show goes from here will be wholly new ground .

HBO

Atticus’ Fate

Let ‘s start with Season 1 ‘s biggest ending departure—the destiny of Atticus. In the picture, the beginning season comes to a dramatic end with Atticus basically allowing himself to die, sacrificed by Christina for her ritual and trusting in Leti and the crowd to save the day. He besides places his faith in both Leti and Montrose to raise his unborn son, named after Uncle George. There ‘s been all sorts of magic trick and revivals and trickery, so it ‘s hard to entirely rule out Atticus returning—but his death fit was reasonably dramatic and a cap to season 1. It would be a shame to see Jonathan Majors gone from Lovecraft Country after only one season—but that seems to be where things are headed. Atticus survives the entirety of the book .

Ruby’s Fate

This happened off-screen, and was quite a writhe. At first, we think that Ruby and Christina are developing substantial, serious quixotic feelings for each other—and to a certain academic degree, they actually may be. then, we come to believe that Ruby was putting it on, an elaborate ruse to steal the potion needed from Christina. And then we realize that Ruby was putting it on, but Christina realized she was putting it on first—and killed her, using her torso as a suit/skin/vessel just like she has with Dell and William. therefore yes, it would lead us to believe that Ruby is, in fact, dead—a departure from the script, where her character survives and seems to be angling at a future where she uses her white woman suit for a comfortable future .

Christina’s Fate

Christina ‘s fortune, meanwhile, is reasonably similar to the script. Of course, in the book she ‘s Caleb Braithwhite, a serviceman, but the character is placid playing a chess game all along, trying to help and take advantage of our heroes to her advantage. In the book, Caleb ‘s invulnerability is broken and he ‘s technically just stranded, powerless. In the show, though, things are a small different. Christina ‘s plot is foiled, but she ‘s left trapped under a giant star rock, the wreckage of her own avarice and ambition. Dee, who ‘s found Atticus ‘ shoggoth, has besides been hooked up from the future or a different world by Hippolyta, a automaton arm allowing her to draw again—and do a unharmed set more, excessively. She knows the pain Christina has caused her kin, and refuses to fall for her charm—she chokes her until her throat explodes. felicitous ending !

Atticus and Letitia

Like the rest of the series, the appearance ‘s two leash characters are absolutely cast. Jonathan Majors plays Atticus as precisely the kind of nerd-turned-insanely jack guy that everyone realizes he is the moment he gets second from Florida, and his earnest-but-not-quite-shy persona is arrant for the character. additionally, Jurnee Smollett is the arrant performer to play Letitia, her sky senior high school confidence coming through with every single line learn. There ‘s a tip of woo and flirt between the two of them that never truly materializes in the book, but the actors work it in well however. episode 2 shows some hints of romanticism between the two—their relationship in the ledger is about entirely platonic ; Episode 3 in full dives into this, as Atticus and Letita get in concert during the party. Atticus is clearly covetous of Letitia talking to other men during her housewarming, and decides to do something about it. This is entirely new for the picture, but the great chemistry between Smollett and Majors means it wholly works. The romance remains a key piece of the series throughout Season 1 .

Time Travel…ish

The stallion Episode 9 Back to the Future-esque stumble back to Tulsa in 1921—everything with Montrose and George ‘s backdrop, Leti ‘s invulnerability, Atticus saving the young version of his don and uncle, and Hippolyta serving as a “ motherboard ” and her hair turning blue—was created for the picture. It ‘s not in the book at all .

A Very Meta Moment

After an Episode 7 development that made it seem like the past might have changed and Uncle George distillery been active, the story further subverted that of the book by introducing a book, called Lovecraft Country and written in the future, by Atticus ‘ to-be-born son, George Freeman ( obviously named for his recently uncle ). In possibly the first consequence in television history for an adaptation to directly reference how its different from its beginning material, Atticus lists some of the differences between the true history and the script when reciting to his father : Christina is a man ( in the ledger ‘Chrisina ‘ is ‘Caleb ‘ ), Uncle Geroge survives Ardham, and Dee is a male child named Horace. These are all actual differences between Misha Green ‘s Lovecraft Country HBO series and Matt Ruff ‘s ledger .

Diana Freeman

In the read, you see that George ( Vance ) and Hippolyta ( Aunjanue Ellis ) have a child, a daughter named Diana ( referred to frequently as ‘D ‘ in the picture ). Diana is a gender-swapped interpretation of the character named Horace in the comic ; Horace ‘s defining feature is that he loves amusing books, and draws his own. We see Diana ‘s comics in the first base episode and throughout the series. In the reserve, Horace gets his own little vignette-esque fib when he gets cursed by Captain Lancaster and a annoy dame begins chasing him and following him and threatening him everywhere. finally, Caleb Braithwhite helps him out of this. Dee, in the series, is besides cursed by Lancaster, but rather of being chased by a dame is chased by very creepy monster/girl twins .

Emmett Till

Diana ‘s ally, Bobo—who appeared previously in Episode 3 playing with the Ouiji board—is confirmed to be Emmett Till ( Till ‘s real-life dub was Bobo ). Episode 8 opens with the consequence of Till ‘s brutal, racist mangle, and the effect it has on Dee and the stallion residential district lasts the stallion episode. There is no tie to Till ‘s mangle in the book .

Christina Braithwhite

Viewers only got a brief glance of Christina Braithwhite ( Abbey Lee ) in the first sequence of Lovecraft Country ( she ‘s the mysterious womanhood who steps out of the silver sedan Atticus sees in the road as they ‘re escaping from the racist dining car ). But Episode 2 dives into the character in a major room. Christina is one of the most importantly changed characters from the book to the HBO series—primarily because the sex has been flipped. In Ruff ‘s novel, the character is Caleb Braithwhite. The character chiefly remains the lapp from this interchange, but it besides provides a set more in terms of mute bias—Christina in the usher distinctly has bias against her ascribable to her sex. At the end of Episode 3, Atticus figures out that Leti ‘s inheritance did n’t come from her beget, but rather that it was arranged by Christina, a chess act in a plan to far dominate what ‘s basically a struggle of sorcerers at this steer. Atticus pulls a grease-gun on her, but he ca n’t pull the gun trigger, because of an invulnerability spell that she ‘s taken from her founder ‘s playbook. While Caleb Brathwhite has immunity in the reserve, the means its invoked in the series is new. It ‘s in this last scene, excessively, that the dispute in turning ‘Caleb ‘ into ‘Christina ‘ becomes significant. “ You have to be smarter than this, ” she tells him as the episode closes. “ You know you ca n’t equitable go around killing white women. ” It becomes clear that Christina, while separate of an oppress group herself ( a female within her own historically male, gender-biased family—even though Samuel is now out of the picture ) knows that she has the exponent to basically sentence a Black man in Atticus to death simply by an accusation. And by episode 5, we find out that Christina occasionally moonlights as William, person who works for the Braithwhite class ( and besides has something romantic/manipulative going on with Ruby. ) As Christina and Ruby continue their bizarre body-swapped affair, Ruby tells Christina that she ‘ll never know what it ‘s like to be in her situation—knowing what happened to Emmett Till and feeling helpless. Christina, who we learn is searching for immortality, hires men to kill her in the exact way that Till was murdered—beaten, shot, wrapped in barb wire, and bewilder in the river. none of this is in the book, nor is Till ‘s fabricated tie to the Freeman family or Diana/Horace .

Hippolyta Freeman

A big chunk of Episode 7 focuses on Hippolyta using the orrery from Hiram ‘s house to find a planetarium-type place, looking for answers on what happened to George. finally, she finds the topographic point, is attacked, and is saved by Atticus, but then is teleported to space and different worlds/dimensions—including one dimension where she opens up, in the past ( in fact, in a scene right out of the first episode ) to the still-alive George. A translation of this report was basically a vignette in the reserve, but things were a lot different ; Hippolyta in that version basically sneak around, figuring out how to find window into different worlds. Rather than jumping from world to world, she found one that was a planet that Hiram had basically discovered, and used as a place to maroon several of the people working as “ the avail ” in his home ( which is immediately occupied by Leti ) ; this includes the maid, the butler, etc. Hippolyta in the show never encounters this sort of scene, alternatively using this narrative device as a intend of her own self discovery—and, as we see at the end of the episode, possibly a way to bring Uncle George back to life .

Ji-ah and the Korean War

While the book references Atticus ‘ clock in the Korean war—as the early episodes do—just in passage, the testify takes things a tied deep by depicting a flashback to his time in Korea. It does this wonderfully, introducing a character named Ji-ah ( Jamie Chung ) living in Korea during the war who crosses paths with Atticus, and the two become lovers. Fun twist—Ji-ah is actually a Kumiho, a being set in the form of a woman ‘s late daughter who will only herself become human once she ingests 100 soul ( and has all sorts of tails coming from all sorts of orifices that suck the soul and memories from her intimate partners ). fun ! As you can tell, this entire storyline is made for the series ( and makes for one of the testify ‘s most fun episodes even ).

William

Ahhhh. We ‘ve been waiting to get here. This is one of the biggest differences between the Lovecraft Country book and the Lovecraft Country series ‘ thus far—William, the blonde-haired unseasoned Johnny Depp-lookalike who works for the Braithwhites, but is n’t their butler, and has all sorts of ambidextrous asshole going on ? Well, in the HBO adaptation, he ‘s not quite who he seems—because he and Christina Braithwhite are the motherfucking same person. It ‘s a lovely wind for the appearance, which has already taken a male character—Caleb Braithwhite—and made him female for the express. By turning Caleb into Chrisina, the how is able to not only weigh the racism of the era, but the sexism american samoa well, even within a mighty family. The difference, though, is that the William lean of all of this is wholly a universe and summation by Misha Green for the show. The character of William is a partially of the book, but he ‘s simply a loyal ( and identical civilized ) servant to the Braithwhites. The display takes a strong liberty, and makes William importantly more important to the plot—by literally making him and Christina one in the lapp .

Ruby Baptiste

Letitia ‘s half sister is shown to be a professional singer and performer in the show, and the two of them sing on phase ( and Atticus pops open a fire water faucet ) for a in truth fun here and now early on in the inaugural episode. In the book, Ruby is more of an invaginate, and finds herself working daily, job-to-job. In one of the book ‘s vignette-esque chapters, she ‘s working as a caterer, and finally gets unjustly fired from that job. That speculate leads directly into the storyline that becomes Episode 5 in the book ( in the indicate, she simply meets William at a bar ). Episode 5—the testify ‘s “ body repugnance ” episode, equally much as each episode seems to channel a different subgenre of horror—is very very much belong to Ruby, as she learns what “ William ” has done to her. With the help of a potion, she now changes into a white charwoman ( who she decides to call “ Hillary ” ) whenever she wants ( though the transformation to and from is ghastly ), and sees the different way a white woman is able to navigate the global from a Black one. The testify takes things a step further than the book though—the plotline where Ruby is living as a white womanhood in the world finds her work in a department store, and handed a cushy problem about immediately, with no feel. The director of the memory is clearly a racist, and this finally leads to the episode ‘s finest moment : Ruby seducing the man, before attacking him with her stiletto, as she transforms back into herself, as Cardi B plays. True art. While Ruby ‘s transformation is a major part of the book, how it plays out is quite different in the express ; her interaction with the early women who work at the storehouse, with the coach, all is original. The biggest difference seems to be this : in the script, she in truth seems to embrace and prefer biography in the body of a blank woman, while in the display, she ore uses her experience in the body of a white charwoman as a vessel to further fuel the injustices that she faces every individual day as a Black woman .

Montrose Freeman

It ‘s impossible when reading the koran to picture anyone other than Michael K. Williams when the character of Montrose is talking or doing anything. But starting with Episode 4, the show very begins to stray his storyline from how it goes in the book. In particular, let ‘s talk about that cliffhanger ending ; it shows that not merely does Montrose have some sort of subterranean motivation ( in killing the woman they found in the museum ), but that he … knows how to use the lapp sort of magic trick that the Braithwhites do, and that Atticus had begun to learn. This is going down a identical unlike road from the storyline in the novel, and we ‘re extremely intrigued to see what happens.
The show besides takes liberties with Montrose ‘s intimate identity, and this is explored deeply in the show ‘s fifth episode. Montrose is shown to be a closet gay world, who at first wo n’t even accept his identity in behind-closed-doors safe spaces, but finally accepts it and feels comfortable. This entire backstory and trait for Montrose is a product of the show—its not in the record .

The Museum Adventure

The whole adventure in the museum in Episode 4 plays out much differently in the book than in HBO ‘s serial. In the script, the deputation is much more wide-ranging feat, as Atticus, Montrose, and Letitia are besides joined by George ( who is hush active at this point ), and a handful of other members of a Black charge that both George and Montrose are members of. Once they find their way to the bible they ‘re looking for, it becomes an about psychological horror type of game, with one of their hostel members ( a fictional character not featured in the show ) used basically as a human fishing hook, thrown into a kind of anti-gravity oblivion where the script is being stored. The testify keeps the gamble, in truth, to just Atticus, Letitia, and Montrose. Rather than a psychological repugnance, the adventure plays out much more like a treasure hunt out of Indiana Jones or Aladdin. And the integral sequence at the back end of the episode, when they find the charwoman who had been a cadaver and ages backwards into a woman again—that ‘s all Misha Green. not from the book at all—and that includes the cliffhanger ending.

Letitia Lewis

Episode 3 primarily focuses on Letitia as she pioneers in a white region, buying a large home and turning it into a board house for herself, her sister Ruby, and other Black people ( including Atticus ) —this mirrors her vignette-style history early in the record. In the picture, this comes after the events of Episode 2, which saw her literally shot by Samuel Braithwhite before being revived ( in the book, she remains alive all along ). Episode 3 finds her looking to revive herself and move onto something new, which leads to the purchase of the new house. And while the book describes some of the harassment Letitia faces from neighbors as the inaugural Black person in the vicinity, the episode takes it to a raw level. It ‘s one thing to read about racially-motivated harassment ; it ‘s another to see a traverse burn on a lawn. This besides leads to one of the sequence ‘s most purgative moments, as Letitia grabs a baseball bat and bashes in the windows and windshields of cars parked outside her house before the police arrive and arrest her. This sequence is not in the book—it ‘s created wholly by Green for the HBO series .

Hiram Epstein

The primary villain of Episode 3 is a scientist who ‘s mean to be part of the magic trick global Lovecraft Country is lento develop ; at the conclusion of the sequence ‘s narrative bow, the ghosts of the people he tortured, all Black, team up with Letitia to exorcise and destroy his emotional state. In Ruff ‘s book, basically the opposite happens ; quite than uniting with the other spirits, Letitia befriends the spirit haunting the house ( there known as ‘Hiram Winthrop ‘ ), and they finally team up to take on bigger enemies.

Uncle George Freeman

As played by Emmy-winner Courtney B. Vance ( american Crime floor : The People vs. O.J. Simpson ), George is one of the most entertain characters in the display, an technical on traveling thanks to his work publishing The Safe Negro Travel Guide. While he ‘s one of the best and warmest characters throughout the book, the show actually finds him with an increased role ( and if you have Vance to play him, why would n’t you ? ). additionally, he ‘s slenderly more incapacitated—we see him tending to his burst knees in the show, a character trait that Green added on her own, apart from the source fabric. Episode 2 brings one of the biggest changes in Uncle George ‘s character—he gets a big lecture at the dinner with Samuel Braithwhite and the Sons of Adam ( in the book, Atticus has this revelation, keeps it to himself, and delivers the speech ). Uncle George besides gets shot by Samuel in Episode 2, and while Christina says they have magic to save him, that does n’t happen—he appears to die at the end of the episode. In the novel, Uncle George survives the entire prison term ; in the vignette dash of the book, he never has his own focus chapter/section, but he shows up in good about every single one. In Episode 3, Atticus, Diana, and Hippolyta bargain with the side effect of Uncle George ‘s death, saying that he had a funeral. however, when playing with a ouija board, Diana gets a message from something claiming to be ‘G-E-O-R-G-E ‘. We ‘ll see .

Character Names

possibly minor in the grand system of things, but it ‘s interest to note how the characters adapted from the book to the HBO series saw their names adjusted. Atticus Turner in the script is now Atticus Freeman ( Majors ) in the series. Letitia Dandridge in the book is now Letitia Lewis ( Smollett ) in the series. One variety that is significant is changing the character of George Berry to now be George Freeman ( Courtney B. Vance ) ; in the book, George and Atticus ‘ don, Montrose, had different death names, and were, therefore, half-brothers. hera, they all share the like last name : Freeman.

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Monsters. Scary ones.

The book has monsters, for sure, rooted in Atticus ‘ awareness of the Shoggoths, a type of monster originating in Lovecraft ‘s Cthulu mythos, particularly his novelette At the Mountains of Madness. Shoggoths were raised by an foreigner rush called “ Elder Things, ” and were in the first place meant to help them build a company, but finally had an get up, and in the salute roll the land wreaking havoc. They ‘re typically pictured as amorphous blobs with particularly acuate teeth and tentacles. Atticus mentions Shoggoths in the beginning episode, after we earlier see him reading a koran by Lovecraft, The Outsider and Others, in his Uncle George ‘s office. The first episode depicts a sort of vampire-hybrid monster that Atticus, Letitia, and Gerorge meet when they ‘re being harassed by the patrol. We do n’t know if these are explicitly meant to be Shoggoths, or something else wholly, but they ‘re sort of blobby/dog-ish monsters, covered with eyes and tentacles and big, acuate tooth. George ‘s front-runner reserve is shown as Bram Stoker ‘s Dracula, and they use this information to realize that the monsters they ‘re dealing with consume Vampiric tendencies of their own ; a bite Sheriff transforms into one of these poisonous creatures himself, and bites his boyfriend policeman ‘s head off about immediately .

Sheriff Eustace Hunt

The early parts of the reserve make it clearly that there are two different types of villain and horror in this fib : the human villains, racists like Sheriff Eustace Hunt ( who ‘s described as having an integral booklet of complaints from the NAACP against him ), and the actual monsters. The read brings the monsters in much earlier, and the vampire hybrids end up bailing our heroes out of their obstruct ; in the book, Hunt is handled off screen by whatever ends up being in the woods, but here we see it with our own eyes : he ‘s bitten by one of these creatures, and finally transforms into one, before Letitia runs him over with the car.

Evan Romano
Evan is an associate degree editor for Men ’ s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE .
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