Based on the British cult classic, the CW's new superhero series The Tomorrow People , much like X-Men, focuses on those who are the next step in human evolution. They possess superhuman powers of telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation and are hunted by a secret organization, whose goal it is to "protect humanity," known as Ultra.

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Stars Madeleine Mantock, Mark Pellegrino, Robbie Amell, Peyton List, Luke Mitchell, and Aaron Yoo along with executive producers Greg Berlanti, Julie Plec, and Phil Klemmer were present at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour to talk about this adaptation, which for two of the producers, was several years in the (imagined) making."Julie and I have been talking about this show since we were in college," Berlanti said when asked what inspired them to tackle this series now. "So that's over 20 years ago. We were both fans of the original series when we were kids. This was before it existed on VHS tapes or the Internet. We got to college in the early '90s and we both remembered loving the show as kids. It played in reruns on Nickelodeon early in the morning, and it was sort of pre‑binge watching, but I would still get up every morning and, like, watch these episodes of the series and it really spoke to me then as a young kid. And she remembered it too, so we would sort of swap stories about, wasn't there ‑‑ didn't they do this thing called jaunting? And there was this really creepy guy named Jedikiah and he'd, like, literally twirl his mustache [and so on]."'In bringing the show to a new generation, the hope is, "to be true to the spirit of the show and kind of [let it] evolve and be its own thing." As to how serialized versus episodic the series will be, Berlanti said. "We'll be doing a couple different things that make it hopefully standaloney in that regard. One of the things we'll be doing is we slowly dole out the histories and the breakout stories of the different individuals that are, you know, on the stage now, and so we'll be telling little mini‑flashback stories that kind of tell a story about how they, kind of, ultimately joined The Tomorrow People."Lost and Supernatural alum Mark Pellegrino, who plays the contemporary version of the aforementioned villain Jedikiah in the series, said that in his mind, his character is the hero of the story."I always think that the characters I'm playing are justified in their actions and heroic in nature," the actor explained. "And I'm protecting the human race, so as far as I'm concerned, you know, you got to do dirty things sometimes to protect four, five, six billion people, how many folks are populating the planet.""I think there's an elegant sort of rationale behind what he's doing," Klemmer agreed. "Sentence by sentence, it all makes sense. But when you put together his world view, he's totally sinister and maniacal.""It's different, but it's that much more exciting because it's something new for me," List said of her turn as one of the leaders of a group of supernatural outcasts. "And I love it. I love the genre. And it makes you feel really empowered when you have these superpowers and you're doing these special effects and these stunts and these fights. It's exciting to go to work when you have all that in front of you.""I spent some time in the hotel during the pilot, trying to figure out what a telekinetic show would look like," Yoo said when asked about the approach to the fight sequences. "I know Robbie and I talked about this a bunch, and after making myself look like some kind of weird Tai Chi enthusiast in the hotel gym for, like, an hour, you realize that, like, the people at Street Fighter kind of spend a lot of time thinking about it. And it's really hard to get any better than 'Hadouken,' you know, so there's been a lot of research and knowledge in the field, let's say, over the years."The actor did come in with some level of fight training, though. "I grew up in Tae Kwon Do. I have a secondary black belt, but I will say, on the first day of fight training, we started with me because I had a little bit more experience. And Peyton stood there and watched me go through a bunch of moves and then was just, like, 'God, now I have to step it up.' And Luke came in after two hours and was just, like, 'What is happening in here?' And then everyone just, like, came and just brought it, you know. And the fight you guys do in Episode 2 is just sick.""And the nice thing is, with Greg Berlanti [who is also an executive producer on Arrow], we get to steal the fight choreographers and stunt coordinators from Arrow," Amell added. "We are sharing all of them.""I feel like on this show we also have a lot of character‑driven story," List said of the non-fighting portion of the series. "So that sort of comes into play as well as the fantasy and the sci-fi side of it. These characters are very much like real people and dealing with kind of extreme circumstances, but they're trying their best to handle and make the right decisions in what they're facing, so I'm enjoying that part of it as well."Amell mentioned Arrow, which his cousin, Stephen, happens to be the star of. When asked if his casting in this series was just a coincidence, the actor responded, "I don't know. It's insane. It was, you know, partly luck and I'm sure it didn't hurt when I started auditioning for the show. But I had worked with Greg [Berlanti] on Brothers & Sisters a long time ago, and Greg helped me get my green card. I e‑mailed him for a letter of referral, because he's such a stud in the business. And he wrote the letter for me, and then I got an e‑mail saying, 'I'm going to bring you in for my show.' I went in and I had a few auditions for John originally. Peter Roth saw my tapes for my screen test for Warner Bros. He said, 'I like him for John, but I'd really like to see him for Stephen.' I tested for that and, you know, here I am.""I'm currently in the process of changing my name to Amell," Yoo quipped.

The Tomorrow People premieres on October 9 on The CW.