FX released the first trailer Monday for “The Drop: A Snowfall Saga,” a spinoff that carries forward two of “Snowfall’s” most closely followed characters into a new decade and a different kind of hustle. Gail Bean and Isaiah John return as Wanda Bell and Leon Simmons, picking up the story in 1990s Los Angeles as the wreckage of the crack epidemic gives way to the emergence of West Coast rap.
The footage opens with Wanda explaining that music pulled her out of addiction and back toward purpose, before showing her break into Leon’s home, prompting him to draw a weapon before recognizing her.
She goes on to frame the rap business in stark terms, calling it a new gold rush free of the violence that defined the drug trade she left behind. That optimism quickly runs up against reality as she pulls her cousins Lamar Kinsey and James Kinsey into her plans and pursues an unpredictable local artist named Artillery, who arrives already entangled with law enforcement.
Leon takes a different route in the series, having pledged to leave street life behind to run a free legal clinic, a choice that puts him at odds with Wanda as she edges toward the same dangerous territory he’s trying to escape. Their exchange in the trailer captures the tension directly, with Leon warning her that she understands the streets but not the business she’s stepping into, and Wanda insisting she’s more than capable of handling it herself.
Malcolm Spellman, Dave Andron, Thomas Schlamme, Julie DeJoie, Michael London, Trevor Engelson and Paul Garnes serve as executive producers on the eight-episode series, produced by FX Productions. “The Drop: A Snowfall Saga” premieres September 8 on FX, with episodes streaming the next day on Hulu and later reaching international audiences on Disney+.
