Rainn Wilson on ‘absolutely insane’ Utopia coincidences

Even one of the stars of a bonkers new TV series, The Office’s Rainn Wilson, couldn’t believe the coincidences.

Rainn Wilson couldn’t have known how prescient his new TV series, Utopia, would be. No one could have.

In Utopia, the star of The Office and Six Feet Under plays a virologist who discovers a strain of flu before it’s unleashed on the world in a pandemic.

“It is absolutely insane. I can’t stress this enough.” Wilson told news.com.au. “We stopped filming the show in September or October 2019 and by December, January, there was a pandemic and we made a show about a pandemic.”

You couldn’t make up that kind of macabre coincidence.

Gone Girl writer Gillian Flynn adapted Utopia from a 2013 British series of the same name. It’s a bonkers, violent and paranoid show that follows a group of comic book nerds who are convinced that a run of graphic novels, Dystopia, predicted the great pandemics (SARS, MERS etc) of the world.

When the sequel, Utopia, is unearthed and predicts yet another pandemic, the group become obsessed with it and the character at the heart of the books, Jessica Hyde (Sasha Lane).

At the same time, a new flu pandemic is brewing, one which strikes and kills children within hours of infection. Billionaire Kevin Christie (John Cusack) is suspected of being involved with his artificial meat protein substitute.

Wilson’s character, an under-appreciated, underfunded and frustrated scientist, both knows about the flu strain and has potentially developed a vaccine against it.

A familiar sight in 2020.

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For those of you counting at home, that covers an international pandemic, the race for a vaccine, a wide-ranging conspiracy, and suspicions against billionaires.

“Even right now, there’s this rush to get vaccines out and rush to vaccines is something that features significantly in Utopia,” Wilson said. “And conspiracy theories – billionaires potentially being behind this. There’s no proof of that obviously (in the real world) but the show deals with shadowy networks operating behind the scenes.

“There are body bags and panic and anxiety in the media, all of this stuff featured in Utopia in some really stunning and arresting ways that we had no idea while we were filming.”

What Wilson did know is he wanted to be part of the project when he read the scripts.

“I got hooked and needed to know what happened … The mash-up of styles was like nothing I had ever read before.

“People always ask me, ‘When you choose your projects, do you choose this or that,’ and it’s like, I’ve definitely turned down a few things here and there, but it’s not like I’m being offered 20 different scripts.

“I think there are certain actors out there who are like that – ahem, Steve Carell! – but it doesn’t really work that way for me. So, I felt really lucky to be offered this part and to be part of this thing.”

Outside of acting, Wilson is also a climate activist who serves on the advisory board of Arctic Basecamp, an organisation that highlights the rate of change in the Arctic. When he visited Greenland last year, he made a documentary of his experiences, An Idiot’s Guide To Climate Change.

He also co-founded SoulPancake, a digital media company which is dedicated to making content that “celebrates humanity”.

Among its YouTube videos are mental health tips with fellow The Office alum Jenna Fischer, bad days with John Krasinski or busting myths about the Muslim faith with Ramy Youssef. SoulPancake’s YouTube channel has 3.35 million subscribers.

So it’s no surprise then that Wilson said he was particularly happy to be an “honorary scientist” on Utopia, given the current state of the world.

“I believe in science and we live in a world right now where a lot of people are doubting science and viewing science as some kind of liberal conspiracy. And we need to stick with the science and stick with the scientists, especially around the pandemic and especially around climate change.

“It’s a terrible time. I just read that 25 per cent of young people in America think that the Holocaust either didn’t happen or was exaggerated. There are all kinds of things happening in the dark corners of the internet where you’ve got thousands of people jibber-jabbering about 5G cell towers, Stanley Kubrick, Hillary Clinton, George Soros and the Rothschilds.

“It’s actually pretty scary.

“So, our show sends it up in a fun way. The show definitely taps into the Zeitgeist.”

Utopia is streaming on Amazon Prime Video now

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