Netflix announces Matthew Broderick has joined the cast of the Netflix high school apocalypse dramedy series Daybreak as Principal Burr.
The cheerful, upbeat principal of Glendale High, Burr knows the name of every kid in school and their favorite character to play in Overwatch. In a hashtag-filled world of #metoo and #blacklivesmatter and #timesup, Burr is genuinely trying to be part of the solution: a good guy, an advocate and ally for all. But let’s face it, kids can be monsters.
Based on the graphic novel by Brian Ralph, the subversive dark comedy Daybreak finds 17 year old high school outcast Josh searching for his missing girlfriend Sam in post-apocalyptic Glendale, California. Joined by a ragtag group of misfits including a pyromaniac 12 year old Angelica and Josh’s former high school bully Wesley, now turned pacifist samurai, Josh tries to stay alive amongst the horde of Mad Max-style gangs (evil jocks, cheerleaders turned Amazon warriors), zombie-like creatures called Ghoulies, and everything else this brave new world throws at him.
The series consists of ten epiosodes from co-creator / showrunner / executive producer Aron Eli Coleite (Locke & Key, Star Trek: Discovery, Heroes), co-creator / director / executive producer Brad Peyton (Frontier, Rampage,producing through ASAP Entertainment), and NW / EP Jeff Fierson (Frontier, Rampage, producing through ASAP Entertainment).
Matthew Broderick will also be featured in a guest arc on the Rosanne spinoff, The Connors, as Jackie’s boyfriend, and will be recurring in FX’s comedy series, Better Things.
The Daybreak comic is described as:
You wake up in the rubble and see a ragged, desperate one-armed man greeting you. He takes you underground to a safe space, feeds you, offers you a place to sleep, and then announces that he’ll take the first watch. It’s not long before the peril of the jagged landscape has located you and your newfound protector and is scratching at the door.
What transpires is a moment-to-moment struggle for survival―The Road meets Dawn of the Dead. Daybreak is seen through the eyes of a silent observer as he follows his protector and runs from the shadows of the imminent zombie threat. Brian Ralph slowly builds the tension of the zombies on the periphery, letting the threat―rather than the actual carnage―be the driving force. The postapocalyptic backdrop features tangles of rocks, lumber, I-beams, and overturned cars that are characters in and of themselves. A New York Times Graphic Novel Bestseller and YALSA Great Graphic Novel For Teens, Daybreak is an art-house take on the classic zombie genre.
