HBO Max greenlights JJ Abrams’ & LaToya Morgan’s FBI drama ‘Duster’

JJ Abrams

HBO Max has given the go-ahead to Duster, the drama series from JJ Abrams and LaToya Morgan about the first Black female FBI agent.

Produced by Warner Bros. Television, and first announced in 2020, the first two episodes of Duster are written by Abrams and Morgan and directed and executive produced by Steph Green.

Rachel Hilson and Josh Holloway star in the eight-part series, which is set in 1972 and follows the agent as she heads to the US southwest and recruits a gutsy getaway driver in a bold effort to take down a growing crime syndicate. Keith David, Sydney Elisabeth, Greg Grunberg, Camille Guaty and Asivak Koostachin also star.

The series is executive produced by Abrams and Rachel Rusch Rich for Bad Robot through its content partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery and WBTV, while Morgan exec produces for TinkerToy Productions via its overall deal with WBTV.

Sarah Aubrey, head of original content at HBO Max, said that the show has “all the elements of a great Max Original, with propulsive storytelling, fantastic characters, and some truly bad-ass car chases.”

The series order comes following questions around Abrams’ and Bad Robot’s partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery in recent months. HBO canned his planned series Demimonde due to issues over its high budget, while Westworld was cancelled at the network. Meanwhile, two of his other projects, Madame X and Constantine were passed on by HBO Max, which also decided not to proceed with Overlook, his spin-off from The Shining.