WATCH: Matt Bomer & Jonathan Bailey’s steamy affair is a dangerous secret in first trailer for ‘Fellow Travelers’

Ever since the decade-spanning historical drama Fellow Travelers was first announced, we’ve pored over every detail, every crumb, every leaked set photo we could get our eyes on.

But it’s only just now—with less than a month ’til release—that Showtime has shared the first, full trailer for highly anticipated miniseries, giving us our most robust look at its epic scope and ambition yet.

Based on the 2007 novel by Thomas Mallon, Fellow Travelers is, at its core, a romance, albeit one that plays against the backdrop of a rapidly changing social and political landscape.

The story starts in Washington, D.C. in the 1950s, at a time when Senator Joseph McCarthy stoked Cold War fears and paranoia, attempting to sniff out and blacklist anyone assumed to be sympathetic to communism—which very much included queer folks.

It’s here that we meet Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller (The Normal Heart‘s Matt Bomer), a charismatic war hero and respected government official who, unbeknownst to anyone, enjoys activities such as public bathroom cruising, anonymous one-night-stands, and rough foreplay. The man is a total dom.

One day, he’s introduced to the nebbish and idealistic Tim Laughlin (Bridgerton‘s Jonathan Bailey), a recent college grad. Hawks immediately understands he and the new guy in town speak the same language, and it’s not long before he’s bossing Tim around in bed—which is exactly how he likes it.

As the two get closer, Hawk grows weary of McCarthy’s anti-communist efforts, worried it could lead to the exposure of his secret double life. So he secures Tim a job in the Senator’s office with the goal of spying on the inner-workings of his campaign.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

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Matt Bomer & Jonathan Bailey’s dom/sub dynamic on full display in steamy new ‘Fellow Travelers’ preview

And who said history was boring?

Created by Ron Nyswaner (writer of landmark gay film Philadelphia and last year’s My Policeman), Fellow Travelers follows the ups and downs of Hawk and Tim’s relationship from the ’50s “through the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the drug-fueled disco hedonism of the 1970s, and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.”

Also key to the story are Lucy Smith (M3GAN‘s Allison Williams)—a politician’s daughter with big ambitious and an eye for Hawk—and Marcus Hooks (Tick, Tick… Boom!‘s Jelani Alladin) and Frankie Hines (Summoning Sylvia‘s Noah J. Ricketts), cohorts of Hawk and Tim’s who have a different perspective on the history unfolding in front of them as QPOC.

The series premiere of Fellow Travelers drops October 27 on Paramount+, and will debut on Showtime on October 29. The seven-episode season will air weekly through December 10.

Check out the first official full-length trailer below:

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