During Tudum: A Netflix Global Fan Event in Brazil, an exclusive look at All the Light We Cannot See shone some light on the on-screen adaptation.

Based on Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of the same name, Shawn Levy’s epic four-part limited series takes viewers back in time to German-occupied Paris. The coming-of-age story follows French teenager named Marie-Laure (Aria Mia Loberti) who is blind and connects with Werner (Louis Hofmann), a German orphan, through radio frequencies. As Marie-Laure and her father (Mark Ruffalo) flee Paris to her uncle’s (Hugh Laurie) house in Saint-Malo, the two strangers’ paths intertwine. “The book — just as its title promises — is about lightness and darkness and hope and evil and heartbreak and love,” Levy previously told Tudum. 

In the sneak peek above, fans finally hear from their beloved young protagonists for the first time. “There was this voice I listened to on the radio, and I will never know who she is,” Werner says. With war and destruction happening all around them, staying connected with one another through the airwaves is a means of survival. “Wherever in the world you are, I pray that the signal from this radio is reaching you,” Maurie-Laure speaks into the radio. “If you can hear me, remember: Darkness lasts not even for one second when you turn on the light.” 

At an LA screening in April, newcomer Loberti, who’s also legally blind, talked about how she brought her character from page to screen. “[Marie-Laure] lost her mom in childbirth and her father is her only anchor, and her only real community,” she said. “It’s isolating, but it’s also not. That was sort of my emotional anchor for her. What does that mean to grow up raised by your father without a mother in a time where extremism is building? What would that have on you developmentally as a kid? That sense of hope that she has drives her forward so strongly.”

As for Hofmann, portraying Werner meant never losing sight of his character’s persistence. “[Werner] is really this sort of very sensitive and broken character who always tries to do good, and fails — but he tries to get up,” he shared. “What is really interesting about him is that his gift, which is building the radios from scratch, is not only his gift but also his burden. The Nazis sort of take advantage of that and he is suffering under the circumstances of war and under the regime. He’s very passive but tries to become active.”

Whether you’re already a fan of the book or new to the series, Levy hopes he did justice to the source material with his adaptation. “Anthony Doerr built such a complex and suspenseful intercut structure,” the director shared at a New York screening. “I always thought it was sort of romantic in the way that it follows these two young characters separately, but almost destined to intersect — and so I tried to honor what was on the page of the novel.”

All the Light We Cannot See premieres on Netflix on Nov. 2.

Netflix fans everywhere can tune in to Tudum: A Global Fan Event, livestreaming from São Paulo, Brazil. Tudum features exclusive news, never-before-seen footage, trailers, and first looks of your favorite series, films and games.

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