David Burroughs is in prison for a crime he didn’t commit — the most horrible crime imaginable. “I’m currently serving a life sentence for killing my little boy,” David (played by Avatar star Sam Worthington) says in the trailer for I Will Find You. “The thing is: I didn’t do it.”
In I Will Find You, the latest series from Netflix’s partnership with bestselling author Harlan Coben, David sees a glimmer of hope on the horizon. His sister-in-law Rachel (Severance’s Britt Lower) brings him a recent photo that seems to show his son, Matthew (Ashton Cressman), alive.
In order to prove his innocence, David will have to break out of prison and find his boy. “David’s journey is one of healing and hope,” Worthington told Netflix. “It was the twists and turns of the story that appealed to me most.”
David is joined in his mission by Rachel, a dogged investigative journalist who makes a formidable ally. “Rachel has never [thought] that David was guilty of the crime that he’s imprisoned for,” Lower told Netflix. “Her curiosity about what actually happened is what sends her on that path.”
Coben’s novel was written in concert with the television series, a first for the prolific author. “I came to [showrunner] Robby Hull with this idea, and we brought it to Netflix as a possible TV show while I was writing the novel, which I’ve never done before,” Coben told Netflix. “We shared a vision in how we wanted to tell I Will Find You so it will grip you, and not just grip you and move you, but really get emotional at the end.”
As David and Rachel search for Matthew, they find themselves sucked into a shadowy world of criminals and conspiracy. They’re aided by Rachel’s ex-partner Hayden (Milo Ventimiglia). “Hayden’s admiration of David as a father in doing whatever he can to find his boy definitely resonates,” Ventimiglia told Netflix. “Helping David is helping a father get back to his son.”
With the police on his tail and his son’s life on the line, David will need all the help he can get. Like any fugitive thriller, I Will Find You features a few tense chase sequences, including one across the rooftops of a New York apartment complex. “The easiest way to show somebody’s commitment is to put them in a dangerous situation and have them do whatever they can to get out of it,” Hull told Netflix. “That is one of those days you go to work, and go, ‘I can't believe I’m doing this for a living.’”
I Will Find You is now on Netflix, just in time for Father’s Day.
