Jon Bokenkamp is again with one other pulse-pounding present in Apple TV+’s The Final Frontier. After first breaking out with the Angelina Jolie-led adaptation of Taking Lives, Bokenkamp later grew to become identified for creating the NBC thriller collection The Blacklist and serving as co-showrunner for its first eight seasons, whereas additionally co-creating its short-lived spinoff, Redemption.
The Final Frontier serves as Bokenkamp’s first collection since The Blacklist ended, telling the story of U.S. Marshal Frank Remnick, who lives a considerably quiet life together with his spouse in a small city on the outskirts of Alaska. Haunted by a previous tragedy, Remnick is all of a sudden thrust right into a race in opposition to the clock when a airplane crashes and results in quite a few jail fugitives escaping, threatening the protection of everybody close by.
Bokenkamp has assembled a star-studded roster for The Final Frontier‘s solid, with Oppenheimer‘s Jason Clarke main the cost as Frank Remnick alongside Yellowjackets‘ Simone Kessell as his spouse, Sarah, Preacher‘s Dominic Cooper, Journal Desires‘ Haley Bennett and Oscar nominee Alfre Woodard. Behind the digicam, the present additionally has frequent collaborator Richard D’Ovidio as a co-creator, in addition to Extraction helmer Sam Hargrave onboard because the pilot’s director and govt producer.
In honor of the present’s premiere, ScreenRant interviewed Jon Bokenkamp and Jason Clarke to debate The Final Frontier. The creator opened up about making the leap from community TV to streaming, the present’s epic one-take opening and the way the collection is a non secular successor to The Blacklist. The star, in the meantime, warmly talked reuniting with longtime good friend Kessell and their characters’ dynamic.
Bokenkamp Introduced 1 Key Lesson From The Blacklist Going Into The Final Frontier
With it not solely marking Bokenkamp’s first main TV mission since stepping down from the NBC thriller, The Final Frontier additionally serves as the creator’s first streaming effort after The Blacklist‘s community run. In reflecting on this transition, one of many essential issues Bokenkamp felt was essential to convey over from the James Spader-led collection is “collaboration“, having gone in with a “trial by fireplace” after making his TV debut on the prior present.
Denoting that one among The Blacklist‘s final objectives was “attempting to high the twist or the concept” arrange in prior episodes or seasons, Bokenkamp recollects this usually led to that present embracing something, “even when it feels ridiculous“, so long as they might “floor that“. This, in flip, is the place The Final Frontier proves to be one thing of “a relative” to the NBC thriller, however factors out that whereas there may be “just a little little bit of a case-of-the-week” construction, it is nonetheless “not a procedural“.
“We attempt to have every episode really feel like its personal film,” Bokenkamp defined. “Every episode kind of options one of many inmates, so whereas we now have that episodic really feel, we have additionally bought an extended overarching thriller that takes place over the course of the season. In order that hybrid, I feel, is a enjoyable house, and I feel Blacklist followers will acknowledge and like that.“
I feel we’re nonetheless attempting to know what the format is, what streaming is.
In evaluating streaming to community TV, specifically, Bokenkamp went on to share his perspective that the previous continues to be in flux, significantly from a viewer’s standpoint, by which he is usually questioning, “Is an algorithm telling me what to observe?” or is he himself “discovering stuff” by means of his personal shopping and phrase of mouth from others.
The first factor the creator finds himself in search of in any present is one thing that “excites me” and that he feels has one thing “to shock me” inside its construction, as a lot as what “makes me chuckle“. This, in flip, is a part of what impressed the creation of The Final Frontier‘s opening one-take sequence, which has “spectacular motion“, however continues to be set to Elvis Presley’s protection of “Unchained Melody”. In brief, a sequence designed to “let you know proper up entrance, ‘It is a very particular tone, and it should be enjoyable.’“.
One of many key variations between the 2 fields, in Bokenkamp’s eyes, is how a present can regulate to viewers reactions. With community TV, creators have “a possibility to see what persons are reacting to” as a season continues to be in manufacturing, whereas with streaming, “that is all produced and completed“. Finally, although, Bokenkamp says the very best philosophy is “observe your intestine“, and praised Apple TV+ for being “implausible” in permitting him and his Final Frontier staff to take action.
“We have had extra time, and we now have extra sources,” Bokenkamp defined. “We have now this loopy concept of what this present is. They are saying, ‘Go do one thing massive and enjoyable,’ and so they backed it up. They delivered and allow us to do a very enjoyable, distinctive, and I feel totally different, present for the service. It is a totally different type of present for Apple, and I hope folks discover it.“
The Final Frontier Will Get Crazier After Its One-Shot Opening
The place The Blacklist opened with Spader’s Raymond Reddington casually strolling into the FBI to show himself in, The Final Frontier goes just a little greater. The Apple TV+ collection kicks off with an all-out brawl breaking out on the jail transport airplane, all of which can also be shot in a one-take technique, true to type for the episode’s director, Sam Hargrave.
On the web page, nevertheless, Bokenkamp reveals that the collection opener was envisioned barely in a different way. Explaining that he had “possibly a half or a web page of description“, he and co-creator Richard D’Ovidio had as an alternative described the breakout as “like a zombie apocalypse“, with the group of inmates “popping out of the woods” in a terrifying vogue.
It is this unimaginable ballet that’s choreographed, and I used to be only a spectator at that time.
That is the place Extraction vet Hargrave got here in, with Bokenkamp praising the director as being “a man who has this wonderful technical talent of pulling off these loopy oners“, approaching the creator with the concept of “let’s do that” for the present’s opening. This led him and D’Ovidio to “stand again” and let Hargrave and his stunt staff “do their work“.
What Else We Discovered About The Final Frontier From Jason Clarke
ScreenRant: Your scene accomplice for lots of this collection, Simone Kessel. I used to be studying that you simply guys are longtime mates.
Jason Clarke: Yeah, Kessie was a beautiful younger girl from New Zealand that came to visit early on in her profession once we have been all doing theater in Sydney. Her husband is one among my finest mates.
ScreenRant: And also you two clearly play a married couple on this collection with a little bit of friction of their marriage. We’ll get into spoiler territory within the again half of this interview. However to begin, how did that inherent relationship that you simply two have offscreen assist develop that dynamic onscreen?
Jason Clarke: Nicely, Simone’s not scared to go there with me. She’s feisty, she’s sturdy, she’s all the things the half wanted. She’s a girl that has put Frank collectively, and we have gone again dwelling to Alaska collectively, and we’re in a position to begin our relationship nicely into, say, our 20-year relationship, which is what Kessie and I’ve. After which, with out having to show that we’re collectively, we felt like there was a stage of comfortability and a stage of push with one another that we each loved very a lot.
The Final Frontier premieres on Apple TV+ on October 10, adopted by new episodes each Friday.
- Launch Date
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October 9, 2025
- Community
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Apple TV+
- Administrators
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Sam Hargrave
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Jason Clarke
Frank Remnick
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