Prime Video’s Cross Official Trailer Drops Featuring Aldis Hodge

Aldis Hodge has hung up his Hawkman wings, but he’s still fighting crime in the official trailer for Prime Video’s upcoming series, Cross. And his character, Alex Cross, is facing a seemingly unstoppable opponent as the 38-year-old detective goes up against a creepy masked killer in the brand-new footage. Check out the video (below), which gives fans a glimpse into the crime thriller, which adapts author James Patterson’s beloved literary character for the small screen.

Ben Watkins teams up with Hodge in the Cross creative collaboration. Watkins acts as the Prime Video series’ showrunner and executive producer, and his most prolific work as an EP comes from his contributions to the television shows Burn Notice, Hand of God and Truth Be Told. And Watkins knows Hodge has something special to offer the fans with his interpretation of Alex Cross. Watkins said of Hodge during an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

Hodge added to the conversation by discussing his take on the character:

Expect the Unexpected from Prime Video’s Cross

Prime Video doesn’t have the same “Cross” to bear as say some of the earlier adaptations of author James Patterson’s literary works did. For instance, Oscar winner (Million Dollar Baby) Morgan Freeman portrayed the character of Alex Cross in both Kiss the Girls (1997) and Along Came a Spider (2001), both of which were adapted from the 1995 and 1993 novels of the same names, respectively. However, the Aldis Hodge-led project doesn’t approach Patterson’s beloved character and stories quite the same way. Showrunner Ben Watkins also told EW:

“When I started down the rabbit hole of reading the books and I rewatched the films, I was making a list of the things that I felt like the films hadn’t done justice to. If you’ve only watched the movies, you wouldn’t know [about the character John Sampson]. Then you get into the books and you’re like, ‘This relationship is so layered and so rewarding and so nuanced and comforting.’ They’re inseparable, and you know you can count on that. I knew that that was one of the things we were going to have to channel for the show.”

Hodge himself touches on the importance of his on-screen relationship with fellow actor Isaiah Mustafa, who portrays the aforementioned jumbo chili dog-eating partner of Alex Cross, Mr. John Sampson. Hodge said of Sampson and some of the other integral characters in an interview with TV Insider:

“Like in the books, John Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa) is his best friend and brother-in-arms. He’s the guy who can course-correct Cross when he veers off the rails, going a little too deep into his mania. His grandmother known as Nana Mama (Juanita Jennings) raised him because his parents died young.

Now she’s helping raise his children Damon (Caleb Elijah) and Jannie (Melody Hurd). Cross actually has a whole community in D.C. That’s something that I really enjoy. He patrols the neighborhood where he grew up and we get to show the kind of people who live there.”

All eight episodes of Cross will be available to stream and/or binge-watch on Prime Video beginning on Thursday, November 14. And for those fans of the character from the books, there’s more Alex Cross to come, because Season 2 of Cross has already been ordered ahead of Season 1’s highly anticipated premiere.