‘Manifest’ Star Curtiss Cook Teases New Mystery-Filled NBC Drama

TV fans looking for their next mysterious obsession need to look no further than NBC‘s Manifest.

The new drama kickstarts its action after the passengers of a very turbulent flight from Jamaica to New York land safely at the airport, only to find that five years have passed since the plane took off for its destination.

Curtiss Cook, who plays passenger Radd on the new NBC drama, recently spoke to PopCulture.com exclusively about the new series, teasing that the mystery behind the series will keep viewers guessing throughout the series.

“I feel like anyone who is interested in that mysterious element of ‘What if?’ or ‘How could something like this happen?’ ‘Is there a scientific answer to [the mystery] or a supernatural element to it,” Cook told PopCulture.com in a phone interview on Thursday, Sept. 6. “Those questions are always intriguing to me.”

A fan of mysterious shows like The Twilight Zone himself, Cook said he was thrilled to get to play a role in the new series, which many are comparing to ABC’s Lost.

Once Montego Flight 828 lands, the crew and passengers realize their realities have been shifted as their families mourned the loss of their lives and have moved on. Five years later, which feels like mere hours to the passengers, they are given a second chance.

The NBC synopsis for the new series reads, “As [the passengers] new realities become clear, a deeper mystery unfolds and some of the returned passengers soon realize they may be meant for something greater than they ever thought possible.”

For Radd, a concert violinist and single father, the deeper mystery of the series includes an intense emotional storyline regarding his son, which viewers will watch play out during the series’ second episode.

“[Manifest] also brings with it a kind of This Is Us feel, being those family dynamics and dramas of true life that people have to deal with based on the circumstances,” Cook said. “I think those things make the show really endearing to a lot of different people.”

Cook, whose previous acting credits include appearances on Luke Cage, The Bold Type, House of Cards and The Leftovers, teased that the show will focus on a different passenger’s story in each episode, but that all the characters’ stories are brought together by the show’s central mystery.

“[Creator] Jeff Rake knows how it’s all going to play itself out,” Cook teased of the series. “[The actors] find out as our characters find out, but because it is so intertwined with all of these people there is a lot of us crossing each other’s paths and coming together.”

“It’s going to be a really trippy ride,” he added.

Created by Jeff Rake, Manifest stars Melissa Roxburgh, Josh Dallas, Athena Karkanis, J.R. Ramirez, Luna Blaise, Jack Messina and Parveen Kaur.

The series premieres Monday, Sept. 24 after the Voice at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.