Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy star as father and son in exclusive first look at ‘twisty’ thriller “Lazarus”

There isn’t one word that could describe the upcoming Prime Video series Harlan Coben’s Lazarus. In fact, there might not be enough words to describe it.

After calling the thriller a “roller coaster,” an “emotional journey,” and “mysterious,” star Sam Claflin laughs as he tells Entertainment Weekly he’s “lost count at how many words I’ve thrown at you.”

Claflin stars as Joel Lazarus, a forensic psychologist with a strained relationship with his family. “He works at a mental institution out of town as far away from the town that he grew up in [as he can],” the actor says.

“There was sort of an unresolved family trauma that he never dealt with, but, you know, decided to run away from his feelings,” Claflin explains, adding that his character “likes to kind of keep himself separate. He sort of lost contact with his friends, his family, and is very sort of focused on his work.”

But a new family tragedy is in store for Joel: “He finds out that his dad took his own life, seemingly so, which to Joel feels very out of character.”

Joel returns home, arriving at his father’s office to find “a strange patient,” executive producer Coben teases. “It leads to a mystery about who killed his father — maybe, and [maybe he] didn’t actually die by suicide — and how is it connected to his sister’s murder 24 years earlier and the murder of other people in their lives?”

Coben adds to Claflin’s list of descriptors: “There’s a little ghost feel to it. It’s a really high-octane, twisty thriller.”

Claflin stars opposite Bill Nighy, who plays Joel’s father, Dr. Jonathan Lazarus. While Joel’s relationship with his father is complicated, “There’s a love and respect and, especially for Joel, almost a hero worship of his father, because his father is a psychiatrist. I think Joel really looked up to him and aspired to be him in some capacity.”

Don’t let EW’s first-look images fool you. While Joel learns of his father’s death in the very first episode, the shots of Joel and Jonathan together are “not flashbacks,” Coben clarifies. “It’s more mysterious than that. We don’t know what exactly it is, but he gets to speak to his father after his father’s death.”

Coben says that ghostly puzzle is the backdrop to a very real murder mystery. “It’s [about] who killed his sister 24 years earlier at the night of what we would call a prom… and how could that possibly be related to the death of his father now?”

He continues, “Those are the questions that had haunted Sam Claflin’s character his entire life. He’s never been able to get past it. He always felt like his father blamed him in part for his sister’s murder. So all of these things, all these family dynamics and twisty mysteries are going to come together in an emotional explosion.”

Claflin adds that the entire family is carrying guilt over the past. “In a way, they all feel like everyone else is blaming them, even though no one is,” he says. “Everyone blames themself for their own wrongdoing, as good people do [after a traumatic event].”

Rounding out the cast are Alexandra Roach as Jenna Lazarus; David Fynn as Joel’s childhood best friend Seth McGovern, a police officer; Karla Crome as Joel’s ex Bella Catton; and Kate Ashfield as Det. Alison Brown.

Coben explains that Joel, Seth, and Bella were all present at the prom when Joel’s sister was murdered. “Now, in a bizarre way with the death of his father, they have a chance, all of them, to look back on what really happened that night and figure it out and also see the ripples in all of their lives up until the present day,” he says.

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Lazarus has all the trappings of a good mystery, Claflin says. “Anyone who has ever seen or read a Harlan Coben story knows that there are some twists and turns and cliffhangers from chapter to chapter, episode to episode.”

With red herrings, curveballs, and cliffhangers aplenty, “There are so many elements to it that kind of keep you wanting more,” Claflin says. And if those words aren’t enough to entice you, just take it from Coben: “The ending is a mind-blower.”

All six episodes of Lazarus premiere Oct. 22 on Prime Video.

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