Feb. 2 (UPI) — The Following alum James Purefoy says his new dystopian drama Altered Carbon is “a warning to us in the present.”

Now streaming on Netflix, the 10-part adaptation of Richard K. Morgan’s novel is about a futuristic society in which human consciousness may be transferred between bodies, meaning the wealthy can essentially live forever by adopting another “sleeve” when the old one wears out. The series co-stars Renee Elise Goldsberry, Will Yun Lee, Martha Higareda and Ato Essandoh.

Asked by UPI at a roundtable interview Tuesday with reporters what appealed to him about telling this story, Purefoy replied: “I think working on anything where you are talking about a dystopian future on a show, which is very clearly a warning to us in the present.

“That if we continue on our present trend, then we are going to end up living in a world possibly similar to this, and that’s really what all dystopian, science-fiction is about, whether it be Blade Runner or Metropolis. Any number of things where you take the present, look at the trends, extrapolate that from that into the future. What you are saying is: ‘Do you like the look of that world? Because if you don’t like the look of that world, you guys need to take personal responsibility and change the course of where you’re going,'” the British actor continued.

“I loved the way that it was playing on lots of different levels,” added Purefoy’s co-star Joel Kinnaman. “On one hand, it was a very exciting, big-scale, action and sci-fi show and then it had a very intriguing murder mystery at the center of it and then, at the same time, as James was saying, it really brings up a lot of social problems that we see the extreme exaggerations of problems that we are seeing in society today with income inequality … But, also, I really like the idea that, in this future where we can change bodies, then all the ideas of gender and race, they become kind of obsolete.”

Source: UPI