Creator's Corner

Behind the Scenes | Original Pitch Materials | View history

This page offers a rare glimpse behind the curtain of Tales from Nowhere, featuring creator Jesse Alexander's original pitch, his personal reflections on fear and storytelling, and the philosophical foundation that shaped the series.

Creator's Intent

Alexander's personal history with fear forms the emotional foundation of Tales from Nowhere. In his original pitch materials, he describes how his childhood fears never truly went away they simply "grew up" with him:

"What I understand now is that those childhood fears never went away. They just evolved. The monster in the closet became the fear of failure. The thing under the bed became the fear of dying alone. The scratching at the window became the fear that I'm not good enough, never was, never will be." Jesse Alexander, series pitch document

This insight the idea that our childhood fears transform into adult anxieties became the central theme of the series. In Nowhere, supernatural creatures literally embody these evolved fears, making the psychological tangible.

The Original Pitch

The Log Line

The Teaser

Alexander's original pitch opened with what would become the show's most memorable image:

"Open on a night sky over West Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Stars blaze with a clarity impossible in light-polluted cities. A telescope dish dominates the foreground a massive scientific instrument, searching for signals from space.

But something else is in the sky tonight. Something that shouldn't be there.

A light moves among the stars. Not a plane. Not a satellite. Something that pulses. Something alive.

And then a voice, weathered and knowing:

'Fear has two meanings: Forget Everything And Run, or Face Everything And Rise. In Nowhere, West Virginia, you don't get to choose which one finds you.'" Opening teaser from the series pitch

The Philosophy of Fear

Alexander developed a unique mythology for the series, positioning fear itself as a force that could be harnessed or weaponized:

"Every person in Nowhere carries their own personal monster a fear that has taken shape and walks among them. Some have made peace with their monsters. Others are consumed by them. The question the show keeps asking is: when fear becomes real, does confronting it destroy you or set you free?" Jesse Alexander, development interview

Fear as Character

In the show bible, Alexander outlined how each main character's arc would be driven by a specific fear:

• Abigail: Fear of being inherently different/not human enough
• Benji: Fear of being abandoned, like his father abandoned him
• Thaddeus: Fear of death and losing control
• Clara: Fear of letting others down when they need her most
• Satoshi: Fear of his past catching up with him
• Keiko: Fear of never being enough for her family
• Willow: Fear of becoming her parents
• Asher: Fear of being seen for who he really is
• Sasha: Fear of being alone with herself

The Episodic Format

Alexander designed the show with a specific structural formula that balanced monster-of-the-week storytelling with serialized mythology:

"Every episode should work as a self-contained horror story. You should be able to drop in on any episode and understand what's happening. But if you watch them all in order, you see the bigger picture the way individual fears connect to create something monstrous." Jesse Alexander, writers room notes

The Four-Season Vision

From the beginning, Alexander envisioned Tales from Nowhere as a four-season story with a definitive ending:

"I know exactly how this story ends. Abigail's journey has a destination. The tragedy of the hiatus isn't just that we didn't get more episodes it's that this story exists, complete, in my head. The ending is written. The characters reach their destinations. Somewhere, in some dimension, Nowhere gets to finish its tale." Jesse Alexander, 2022 interview

The Wendigo's Role

Alexander's conception of the Wendigo as the series' primary antagonist was deliberately different from traditional depictions:

"The Wendigo isn't just a monster. It's fear itself, given form. It doesn't eat flesh it feeds on terror. Every cryptid in Nowhere, every supernatural event, is either fleeing from the Wendigo or serving it. It's the apex predator in an ecosystem of fear." Jesse Alexander, creature design notes

This conception of the Wendigo as a "fear elemental" rather than a traditional wendigo from Algonquian folklore allowed the show to explore psychological horror through supernatural metaphor.

Related Interviews

• "Fear Is the Engine": Jesse Alexander on Tales from Nowhere - Entertainment Weekly premiere interview (February 2019) - Alexander discusses his journey to horror, the real-life Quiet Zone, and his transmedia vision for the series.