NBC Orders Sci-Fi Drama Series ‘Debris’ Starring Jonathan Tucker & Riann Steele

NBC has given its first series order to a 2020 pilot, picking up sci-fi drama Debris, starring Jonathan Tucker and Riann Steele, from Almost Human creator J.H. Wyman, Legendary Television & Universal Television.

A series order had been expected for Debris, which had been in contention to get a pickup before the cast’s options were to expire tomorrow.

As Deadline reported, the project is believed to be the 2020 broadcast drama pilot with the most footage in the can before all Hollywood production shut down in mid-March. The producers were able to edit together the material, complementing the actual footage with additional visuals in the vein of how The Blacklist completed its unfinished episode. The finished product received a positive reaction at NBC, solidifying the project’s series pickup chances.

Debris was one of two pilots NBC put on a series pickup track earlier this month. The other, drama La Brea, received a six-script order and will be in consideration for a straight-to-series order later this year.

Written by Wyman, Debris is said to be in the vein of The X-Files and Men In Black. In it, two agents, played by Steele and Tucker, from two different continents, and two different mindsets, must work together to investigate when wreckage from a destroyed alien spacecraft has mysterious effects on humankind.

Wyman executive produces through his Frequency Films alongside Jason Hoffs. Legendary and Universal Television co-produces with Frequency Films.

Before creating and executive producing Fox’s Almost Human, Wyman also created and exec produced Keen Eddie and executive produced Fringe.

Tucker and Steele are both repped by UTA.