‘Duster’ Is A Fun, Zippy ‘70s Style Ride-Along , Says Series Creator

LaToya Morgan admits that they needed four cars to play the title vehicle in the new series Duster.

“It’s a really cool car. They only made it for about six years,” she explains, adding, “We wanted something really iconic for this show. We thought about the Aston Martin that [James]

Bond has, or the Mustang that Steve McQueen has. So that’s what it is.”

The series, set in the 70s, features Josh Holloway (Lost, Yellowstone) as a getaway driver who encounters a tenacious FBI agent played by Rachel Hilson (Love, Victor and The Good Wife) who wants to take his crime family down.

Holloway says that as soon as he landed the part he signed up for driving lessons. However, he quickly learned that the four cars each had their own peculiarities. “They’re all set up differently. and so in one, the brakes are spongy, the other one is very jumpy, and another one won’t go into first gear, but it’ll go into third. So you have to know each one of the cars. But luckily, I know how to figure the quirks of every car that I’m in.”

Morgan, who serves as showrunner and writer on Duster, also co-created the series with J.J. Abrams. She says that, “The idea came about because J.J. had an image in his head — it was a phone booth, a phone ringing in the middle of the desert and a muscle car racing up to it. And he said, ‘I think maybe Josh Holloway jumps out of that car. And I was like, ‘I dig this idea.’ So we really started pitching out ideas of what it could be and really building the show together.”

The series falls on the spectrum somewhere between exploitation and crime thriller, with Morgan explaining that, “It’s a mix of a lot of things. People who enjoy that Tarantino vibe, that Scorsese vibe, that’s there, and we always wanted to infuse everything with humor as well. So, there’s a lot of heart and fun in the show.”

She points to touchstones that include, The Godfather, Parallax View, Sugarland Express, and, as she says, “all those great movies from the ’70s that we all know and love. Those were inspirations.”

She adds. “One of my favorite [movies] is Five Easy Pieces, which a lot of people don’t know about, but I love that movie so much, and I feel like people think the ’70s are very big collars and bright clothes but in that movie, you get to see people just wearing their jeans and looking really normal and looking really lived in and authentic. That’s what I really wanted the show to feel like.”

Since Duster is set nearly a half-century ago, the car is about as flashy as the technology gets in the series, which only adds another level to the narrative, says Morgan.

“There’s some fun to there not being technology. I think that was one of the reasons that I fell in love with the idea of doing [a show set in] the ’70s. There were pay phones. There were CB radios. There were 8-track [tape players]. And, I mean you really had to track somebody down to have a conversation. So, that really made things more intimate in a sense.”

And, she say that for the main character, Jim, “It just makes his life harder in the best possible way [because] he’s constantly racing to try to get somewhere. So, it really added a layer to his character that he couldn’t just type a text on a cell phone.”

Holloway says that this aspect applies to the title vehicle as well. “The cars nowadays won’t allow you to do the things that you can do in a car in the ’70s. You have to turn all the computer stuff off. So, in a 1972 Duster, you can still slam that emergency brake, sling it around, and it won’t correct it for you, so you can really enjoy that side of [the show] as well.”

He adds, “And I feel like we miss so many interstitial moments where people are just on their iPhone, whereas, in the ’70s, you had to sit with that moment. You had to actually process things, and that also allows the audience to watch someone process something, [which] is not boring.”

Some early viewers of the series have compared Duster to an actual 70s show — Starsky & Hutch, which featured a duo zipping around in a cool car.

The association is fine with Morgan because she says both series are ‘fun.’

“That’s the great thing about this show is half the time, you never know what type of person [our characters] are going to run into when they open a door. That’s the real fun of it — you get to have your action, you get to have your thriller, you get to have your family and your heart. So, it’s a real combination of those things.”

‘Duster’ premieres on Thursday, May 15^th on HBO Max. New episodes will be available each Thursday through July 3^rd, 2025.