“90210” alum Matt Lanter heads back to high school on The CW’s “Star-Crossed,” which debuts on Monday night.
In the new series, which takes a page out of “Romeo & Juliet,” Matt plays Roman, a member of the Atrians, an alien species who crashed landed on Earth a decade ago, looking for a new planet to inhabit. Young earthling Emery (Aimee Teegarden) briefly shelters him in her garage when the authorities were looking for him. And, as the series kicks off, a group of young Atrians become an integration test group at a local high school, prompting Roman and Emery’s paths to cross again.
“I think that’s something that he always remembers and that’s something that plays into him trusting Emery, and him having a trust for humans,” Matt told AccessHollywood.com about how Roman’s initial interaction with a human girl affects him a decade later. “I think that his dad is wanting to trust humans and his dad is heading up this integration program — Roman is more skeptical of it — but because of Emery, that is like his beacon of hope for that. … So it obviously plays in to who he is today and obviously he’s never forgotten that and [is part of] his draw toward her.”
As Matt explained, Roman’s father is hoping to see progress with integration, but not everyone – or every species – is on the same page.
“There are groups of humans that hate the Atrians and just want them to die and go away. There are groups of humans that want integration that are kind of progressive and want to work towards the future as co-existing together, which kind of is a realistic way to look at things. That probably would happen,” Matt said. “Same thing with Atrians — there’s hate groups. The Atrians that are called ‘Trags’ basically want to take over the humans and kill them. And then there’s people that want to co-exist. … It kind of creates the high stakes for the entire show. Kind of a ‘save the world’ kind of thing.”
WATCH: Aimee Teegarden: The Early Response To ‘Star-Crossed’ Has Been ‘Amazing!’
Matt returns to high school halls for the role, and he laughed when Access asked him about having the youthful good looks that are allowing him to once again play a student.
“It’s [set] in and around high school… They’re not like taking tests and things like that. There’s actually bigger stakes in the show,” Matt said. “But yeah, you’re right. It’s interesting. I’ll take it. Hey, if I’m 55 and they want to put me as a high school [student], I’ll do it.”
“Star-Crossed” premieres Monday night at 8/7c on The CW.
— Jolie Lash
Copyright © 2024 by NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be republished, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.