Josh Hutcherson Talks About His Hulu Sci-Fi Series Future Man

Josh Hutcherson says that his upcoming sci-fi action comedy Future Man is going to be full of references only super fans will get. The former Hunger Games star recently discussed the upcoming series in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, talking more about the huge departure the new show is from his previous family friendly roles and giving viewers a taste of what to expect from the highly anticipated series.

Future Man, which is executive produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, is set to follow Josh Futterman (Hutcherson), a janitor by day and gamer by night who works at an STD research laboratory. Josh spends his nights playing his favorite video game Cybergeddon. "He can clean and play video games, those are his two talents," Hutcherson says.

Everything changes, though, after Josh gets one of the high scores in Cybergeddon. Two future warriors (Eliza Coupe and Derek Wilson) decide that he's the only person who can save the world, and travel back in time to recruit their messiah to prevent their apocalyptic reality. If the twist seems familiar to what you've seen before, it's on purpose. "All of us grew up in the era of these amazing movies like Back to the Future and The Terminator," said Ariel Shaffir (Sausage Party), who co-created the show with Kyle Hunter (The Night Before). "This was an opportunity to lean into the genre, but do it in a funnier way."

Part of this comedy will come from an extreme deep-dive into geekdom, which will include "so many references that maybe seven people will get," according to Hutcherson. "There's certain weapons we use that are some deep Star Trek weaponry that my grandma, who's a hardcore Trekkie, would know," Hutcherson said.

While the series will obviously maintain many of the funny bits that go hand-in-hand with its creators and stars, it won't be all hilarity. Rogen says that the series is "very plot-driven and conceptual," adding that they have already talked about the big picture and plans for future seasons. "It's the most demanding show I've ever done," said Coupe, who compared her character to Sarah Connor in Terminator 2. "The amount of action stuff we do is crazy. Derek and I were doing a fight scene two weeks ago, I think it was 15 hours outside [filming]."

The tough filming was made even harder following the tragic death of Glenne Headley, who was a series regular in her role as Josh's mom. Hutcherson says that the legendary actress was deeply missed on set, with her character being written out instead of replaced following her death in her memory. "It still hasn't really settled in all the way," Hutchersaid said. "In the show, her character's my mom, the most sweet, loving, passionate woman. She's so funny. Her and Ed Begley Jr. together are the dream parents."

You can view some images from Future Man below. The show is expected to premiere at some point this year; in the meantime, see all of the other TV shows that will blow you away in the coming months.