Jack Dunn While in development for the Amazon Prime drama “Expats,” creator, writer and director Lulu Wang knew she had to pay tribute to the lives lost during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Having been in China at that time as a child, she remembers how scared she was when her father nearly left to join the protest which ultimately led to the death of hundreds. “My father was supposed to go to this protest and my mother said to him a speech, which is in the show.

She said, ‘Out there, you are an ant. You can give your life and it will not make that big of a difference. They’ll forget about you.

But you’re my whole world, and you’re Lulu’s whole world,'” Wang said during Variety‘s Night in the Writers Room on June 13. “I said to the studio and I said to [Nicole Kidman], ‘If I do this series, there’s no way that you can silence me because if I don’t talk about this, that silence is going to be incredibly loud considering where I come from.'” As part of the event, Wang was joined by showrunner and writer on “Feud: Capote v.s The Swans” Jon Robin Baitz, showrunner and creator of “Manhunt” Monica Beletsky, showrunner of “We Were the Lucky Ones” Erica Lipez, writer and creator of “True Detective: Night County” Issa López, showrunner of “Apples Never Fall” Melanie Marnich, writer and co-creator of “The Sympathizer” Don McKellar, writer of “Masters of the Air” John Orloff and creator and writer of “A Gentleman in Moscow” Ben Vanstone to discuss how they developed some of 2024 most popular limited series.

Writers Behind ‘Expats,’ ‘Masters of the Air,’ ‘The Sympathizer’ and More Break Down Inspirations and Working with Authors to Develop Limited Series

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