Yahoo Finance Matthew Fox Channels His Former Lost Character as He Makes Anticipated Return to TV in Last Light
Matthew Fox is making his return to TV — and in very dramatic fashion.
The former Lost actor, who portrayed Dr. Jack Shephard in the ABC sci-fi series from 2004 until 2010, is set to make his debut in Peacock's Last Light, premiering next month.
Fox's involvement in the series marks the first time he'll be returning to screens in seven years, and his first television role since 2010.
Last Light, based on the international best-selling novel of the same name by Alex Scarrow, will tell the story of Andy Yeats, "one of the world's leading petro-chemical engineers," who is separated from his family after the world's oil supply is suddenly interrupted, according to a synopsis provided by Peacock.
As shown in the series' action-packed trailer, which was released on Tuesday, Andy is in a race against time as he works to reunite his family amid the ongoing oil disaster.
"Chaos poses the greatest danger," British government employee Karl Bergmann (Tom Wlaschiha) says in the trailer, while another voiceover can be heard saying, "There is a lot at stake here."
"Once you've seen the truth, it becomes your responsibility to help other people too," adds wife Elena (Froggatt) to Andy. "We're going to do this together, every step of the way."
In a chilling final moment, Andy says, "Just tell me what I've got to do."
Courtesy of MGM Television/NBCU/Peacock Matthew Fox in 'Last Light'
RELATED: Matthew Fox Talks Return to TV After 'Retiring' from Small Screen: 'It Felt Like the Right Time'
In a statement shared on Tuesday, executive producer and director Dennie Gordon said in part: "We knew that we were telling a ripped from the headlines story. But we didn't realize that things would escalate as they have, and that we would be living all these events as we were shooting in real time."
"Our thriller is told against the backdrop of a family separated by world events, and I was privileged and thrilled to have Matthew Fox come out of retirement for this special series," Gordon continued. "We had a couple of intense obstacles while making this including shooting during the heights COVID. But I speak for all of us when I say we each gave 1000% every single day because this was a labor of love that meant so much to all of us."
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In June, the 56-year-old Party of Five star discussed his previous decision to step away from acting, as well as why he was coming out of "retirement" for the role in Peacock's limited series.
"I kind of had a bucket list in my mind of things that I wanted to accomplish in the business, and after I did Bone Tomahawk in 2014 that had kind of completed the bucket list," Fox said at the Monte-Carlo Film Festival, Variety reported. "I wanted to do a Western. It's a very odd Western, but it's a Western. And so that sort of completed the bucket list."
"At that time in my life, our kids were at an age where I felt like I needed to really reengage," he continued. "I had been focused on work for some time, and [my wife] Margherita had been running the family so beautifully, but I felt like it was time to be home, and I really felt like I was retiring from the business, and working on other creative elements that are really personal to me – some music and writing."
Courtesy of MGM Television/NBCU/Peacock Matthew Fox in Last Light
However, Fox told reporters that things changed when he got the opportunity to be both the executive producer and star of Last Light.
"I kind of got to a point where I thought that maybe the bucket list included executive producing," he said. "I'd never done that before. The opportunity to be involved in 'Last Light' came along, and so I wanted to give it a shot. And it felt like the right time."
"So it just all kind of came together. It felt like it was the moment to jump back in, and see how it felt to be in front of a camera again, and to act again," Fox added. "And it was surprisingly rewarding. And I felt really good doing it, and with this incredible group of people, and the collaborative aspect of it, and how well we all bonded, how much we believed in the project. And it turned out to be a fantastic experience."
Courtesy of MGM Television/NBCU/Peacock
Since Lost, the actor has remained largely away from the spotlight, with a smattering of film roles including the 2013 zombie movie World War Z, in which many of his scenes were cut.
He also appeared in 2015's post-apocalyptic horror film Extinction and the western cannibal film, Bone Tomahawk.
Last Light premieres Sept. 8 on Peacock.
