Hamza Fouad on Filming ‘Helstrom’ and Why the Horror Series is also a Family Drama [Video]

Just in time for Halloween, the upcoming Marvel series Helstrom promises to be as thrilling as it is full of heart.

Helstrom is centered on Daimon and Ana Helstrom, the son and daughter of a mysterious and powerful serial killer, as they work together to track down the worst of humanity. 

I recently had the chance to chat with Hamza Fouad, who plays police officer Derrick Jackson, about working on Helstrom and what fans can expect from the series. 

Fouad began by sharing just a few of the reasons he was excited to be a part of Helstrom.

“First and foremost, it’s part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I’ve been a fanboy since I was little,” Fouad said.

“And just the fact that Helstrom is connected to the Ghost Rider universe is something that is near and dear to my heart. So I couldn’t be more excited to be part of that world.”

Watch the full video of our interview with Hamza Fouad:

Fouad also said he was excited because this is Marvel’s first horror series, and being a part of any first is, of course, a big deal.

But in addition to that the horror and fantasy element, Fouad described the series as being about something else at its core.

“It’s a drama at the end of the day. It’s a family drama and it follows these siblings that have to learn how to work together after a life of being [estranged],” he said. “There was something that happened in their family at an early age that caused everyone to want to split up, and here we are following them finding each other once again.”

Fouad also spoke a bit about what it was like filming Helstrom and how realistic much of it was.

“What I loved about filming this is how grounded everything was. You know, you think of Marvel and you think of the Avengers and all these green screens and everything like that. At least my experience, when I was on set, everything was set in reality. All of our sets were real. I personally didn’t experience any green screen. I’m sure that there would be, you know, in and around all the other scenes, but my personal experience was everything was just grounded in reality. So that’s what I loved about shooting that.”

While he wasn’t able to share too many specific details, Fouad gave a few hints as to what we can expect from his character. He explained that Derrick is a “police officer in San Francisco” who has “a very close relationship with one of the characters.”

“In every type of show that involves sleuthing, detective work — having to find, you know, spiritual elements in this storyline of the Helstrom siblings trying to find the bad guys, there’s got to be some sort of human element to it,” Fouad added. “And I think I play that human element, if at least the law enforcement side.”

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Helstrom premieres Friday, October 16th on Hulu.

*Featured image credit: Studio Aviva

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