Ooh, this is one to watch!
An upcoming queer tv show on HBO somehow flew under the radar for most LGBTQ folk. But don’t worry, we’re here to sound the alarm on this exciting new series. In late July, HBO released the official teaser for its upcoming mini-series We Are Who We Are. The story follows two army brats living on a military base in Italy. The two bond over their shared life experience and also in the fact that they’re both queer, with one being a gay teen and the other realizing their identity as a transman.
More specifically, Fraser Wilson (played by It and Shazam’s Jack Dylan Grazer) moves to an Italian military base with his colonel mother and her wife. But for the young teen boy, the move ruins his growing romance with a friend named Mark. Thankfully, Wilson will find a new crush in the form of an older soldier named Richard Harper (played by Kid Cudi).
The real story, however, follows Wilson’s blossoming friendship with Richard’s younger sibling Caitlin (played by Jordan Kristine Seamon). Caitlin is a tough-as-nails kickboxer, rifle-shooter, and poet who’s having an identity crisis concerning their gender. The two create an inseparable bond over their queerness and military life.
Check out the first teaser trailer below.
We Are Who We Are is written, directed, executive produced, and showrun by Call Me By Your Name Director Luca Guadagnino. In addition, Guadagnino is joined by Lorenzo Mieli (The Young Pope), Mario Gianani (The Young Pope), Nick Hall, Sean Conway (Ray Donovan), Riccardo Neri and Francesco Melzi d’Eril (Call Me By Your Name) as the mini-series’ other executive producers. Plus, Paolo Giordano and Francesca Manieri helped Guadagnino write the series.
Joining Grazer, Cudi, and Seamon on the cast are Chloë Sevigny (Big Love), Alice Braga (Queen of the South), Spence Moore II (All American), and newcomers Faith Alabi, Francesca Scorsese, Ben Taylor, Corey Knight, Tom Mercier, and Sebastiano Pigazzi.
The new HBO series has been in the works for over a year, as we first heard wind of it back in February 2019. Then, the production for the mini-series hit a hurdle when the queer military show was barred from filming on an Italian military base. While the Casmerma Ederle base is often the location for filming, and was in talks about the series for several years, something within the script caused personnel there to reject We Are Who We Are’s production.
“There were concerns about the content of the script,” Lt. Col. Robert Bockholt, film and television liaison at the Los Angeles office of the chief of public affairs, said at the time. “There are themes in the script that do not fit in what the Defense Department would support.”
Thankfully, the producers found another location to shoot We Are Who We Are. And now, the series is set to premiere on HBO on September 14. We can’t wait!
