Fellow Travelers: UK release date and cast of Paramount+ romantic drama with Matt Bomer - is it a true story?

Fellow Travelers, an American romantic political thriller series, spanning three turbulent decades in American history, follows two gay men working in the heart of government, forced to live double lives.

Hawk and Tim are in love, but in the era of McCarthyism, when paranoia about Communists and gay men and women working in the government led to a crackdown on people whom prosecutors called ‘sexual perverts’, the pair had to hide their true selves from the world.

Confined to their own homes, a very few trusted friends, and underground gay bars, the pair continue their romance in the face of prejudice and discrimination.

Fellow Travelers takes place over a dual timeline, and also follows Hawk and Tim in the 1980s, during the AIDS crisis, after the pair have had a major falling out. They reconnect when Hawk visits Tim after learning that his former lover has AIDS and is dying from the disease.

Who is in the cast of Fellow Travelers?

• Matt Bomer as Hawkins Fuller
• Jonathan Bailey as Tim Laughlin
• Noah J. Ricketts as Frankie Hines
• Will Brill as Roy Cohn
• Andy Milne as Andre
• Erin Neufer as Mary Johnson
• Keara Graves as Miss Addison
• Jane Moffat as Helen
• Mike Taylor as Leonard Smith
• David Tomlinson as Eddie Kofler
• Ben Sanders as Bobby Kennedy
• Lauren Arthur as Jenny
• Michael Therriault as Fred Treband
• Etienne Kellici as Jackson
• Chris Bauer as Joe McCarthy
• Matt Visser as David Schine

Is Fellow Travelers based on a true story?

Fellow Travelers is adapted from the historical fiction novel of the same name by American author Thomas Mallon. 

As the novel is a work of historical fiction, the plot and several of the main characters are not based on real figures, however the backdrop of the series, that of McCarthyism in the 1950s, Vietnam War protests in the late 1960s, and AIDS crisis in the 1980s are real events.

Additionally, the characters of US senator and rabid anti-Communist Joe McCarthy and prosecutor Roy Cohn are both real. They attempted to rout out suspected Communists working in the American government, and were prominent in the Lavender Scare, a moral panic over the presence of gay men and women in government.

Despite seeking to have suspected gay employees dismissed from their posts, Cohn was long suspected of being gay himself. 

Is there a trailer for Fellow Travelers?

Yes there is, and you can watch it right here:

Where was Fellow Travelers filmed?

Despite being set in Washington DC and both protagonists working at the heart of the American government, the series was actually filmed in Toronto, Canada between July and December 2022.

Filming in Canada is often cheaper than the US, and as a result a number of popular American shows are shot north of the border. Other recent projects filmed include The Boys and its spin-off Gen V, What We Do in the Shadows, Wednesday, and Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie.

When is the release date of Fellow Travelers?

Fellow Travelers began airing in the US on Showtime on Friday 27 October. The first episode will arrive on the UK on Paramount+ on Saturday 28 October. There are eight episodes in the series and they will be released on Paramount+ weekly.