Creator and producer LaToya Morgan is no stranger to making great TV. You may already be familiar with her work on such shows as Into the Badlands and The Walking Dead, and it was her writing, she reveals, that attracted the attention of J.J. Abrams, who requested a meeting with her to explore her ideas further. One of her scripts that stood out immediately was a crime thriller with a Western flair; Abrams instantly supplied his own nugget of a scene, one that he’d always envisioned Josh Holloway. From there, the idea quickly evolved into Duster, a ’70s crime thriller about to debut on HBO Max this week.
Ahead of Duster’s premiere, Collider had the opportunity to speak with Morgan about the process of creating the series alongside Abrams, as well as how many seasons’ worth of story they currently have developed. Over the course of the interview, which you can watch above or read below, Morgan also discusses the sound of Duster (including which artists were too expensive to get), the research she did into real-life Black FBI agents to inform Nina Hayes’ (Rachel Hilson) story, writing for Keith David’s complex mob boss character, and more.
COLLIDER: First of all, I have to say congratulations on Duster. I have not had as much fun watching anything as I’ve had watching this show over the last few days.
LATOYA MORGAN: Oh, that makes my day!
I would love to hear about the genesis. How did the idea for Duster emerge in those early plotting stages between you and J.J. Abrams?
MORGAN: It all emerged because J.J. had read a couple of scripts that I had written, and he really loved them, so he wanted to meet. The kernel of one of the stories that he loved was a crime thriller, but it has a little bit of a Western twist, and so it made him think of this image that he’d had in his head for about 20 years of a phone booth in the middle of the desert and a muscle car racing up to it. He said, “I think Josh Holloway gets out and answers the phone, but I don’t know anything else.” So, it was really just the image and us talking. I started to pitch ideas about who was this character and why was he in the middle of the desert, and who was with them, and what bad stuff were they getting up to? That really began the process, and we started building the story together. We wanted his character to collide with this really unstoppable force that is Nina Hayes. So, that was really the genesis of the idea.
Josh Holloway Was Always in Mind To Lead ‘Duster,’ Reveals LaToya Morgan

Image via Max

It’s funny to hear you say Josh was always the person that J.J. envisioned getting out of the car and picking up the phone, because sometimes it just feels like you get a show where it’s the perfect marriage of character and actor. It does not feel like there’s anybody else who could have played Jim Ellis other than Josh Holloway. When you had a sense of the story and the pieces were starting to come together, was it always really Josh that you were envisioning? How early did those conversations start about bringing him into the process?
MORGAN: Literally from the first moment we spoke. Maybe within the first 30 minutes, we were like, “Josh Holloway. It has to be him.” J.J. has always felt, and I agree, that Josh just feels like he’s from the ‘70s. He could be in the ‘70s. So, it was the idea of making him a getaway driver that was really fun, something where he could be part of a crime family and an integral piece, and we get to see the inner workings of how that crime family is put together. That was always from the beginning. And of course, Josh and J.J. have worked together a bunch, so it was just a great time to give him an actual vehicle, literally and figuratively, for him to star in.
You already mentioned Nina, so I was curious about the research that went into what the experience would have been like for Black agents, specifically Black female agents, at the FBI during that time. Did you do a bit of a deep dive to flesh out Nina’s story in that way?
MORGAN: Absolutely. We did a ton of research. We had a wonderful FBI consultant, named Jerri Williams, who was brilliant. She was in the Bureau in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and she was really able to unpack what her experience was, what was the experience of agents that also looked like her and that were part of her class. We really did a ton of research and talked to folks. Then, of course, we use Sylvia Mathis as a touchstone, the real-life first FBI agent who came in years later, and we sort of stirred them all in the pot and mixed them up with characters that we know. That’s how we created Nina.

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‘Duster’ premieres May 15 on Max.

One thing that really stuck out to me while watching the show is that the soundtrack is incredible — the number of ‘70s hits, straight-up bangers across the board, that you guys are able to incorporate as part of the show. Were there any songs that you tried to get in and couldn’t? What was the process behind finding the sound of Duster?
MORGAN: I love this question because I love the music of the show. That was probably one of the biggest things that we wanted in the show. We had to have great compositions, but we also had to have awesome needle drops. We had a great music supervisor who came in and was always making wonderful suggestions.
There were a couple of Elvis songs we couldn’t get. It is insanely expensive to get Elvis. We tried to get a Johnny Cash song; we couldn’t get that one. We ended up getting a George Harrison song. Oh my god, that was a dream, because that really sets the tone for the first episode. We have one, also, in the finale, so it’s great bookends.
There’s a Reason ‘Duster’s Crime Syndicate Feels Like “Family”

Image via Max

I feel like you can’t talk about Duster without talking about Keith David, who gives such a tremendous performance in the show as Ezra Saxton. Sax isn’t just this stereotypical villainous mob boss, this mustache-twirling antagonist that we can sometimes get in media. How did you want to build his complexity and his complicated morality, and to really sow the seed of doubt in the viewer? Because it really feels like you go on the journey with Jim, where you’re questioning: did he do these things that he’s being suspected of?
MORGAN: First and foremost, Keith David is the man, the myth, the legend. He is absolutely brilliant. I was so excited when he decided to join the show. I was like, “He read the script! He likes it!” Because I was envisioning someone like him. He’s the only one who could bring that gravitas and also make you want to have a drink with him.
I built out a really detailed character arc for him, and really dug into his backstory and made him, obviously, a veteran. Of course, he has his own criminal ways. He had his whole life on the East Coast before he came to Arizona. We really drilled down into that friendship that he built with Wade, and so they have a backstory. So, that also filters down to Jim’s relationship with Saxton. We really wanted it to feel like family, and what would you do if you suspected someone in your family, your father figure, had done something so heinous? You really get to see the conflict within Jim. He doesn’t want to believe this, but there’s so much evidence that’s building up that Nina keeps bringing to his attention. So, it was really key that she had something solid in order for Josh to want to turn, because he’s such a loyal guy, there’s no other way that he would.
Something else that I think is really fun about this show is the historical figures that get dropped throughout the narrative — Colonel Tom Parker, Howard Hughes. How much did you want to sprinkle in these famous faces without making it too much of a motif or too distracting to the overall story?
MORGAN: The goal was to sprinkle them in, like you said, feather them in. Even in the second episode, when [Jim] goes to that pool party, there were supposed to be even more like little celebrities that you see in the background, but we never wanted it to be intrusive. But we also read so many accounts into these stories of parties and places where there were just famous people everywhere, and we just wanted it to feel a little bit like it’s happening in the background. It doesn’t distract you from the mission, but it’s there.
Without going into spoilers, I think where the show ends up is definitely setting up a really interesting Season 2. How much of that do you have hashed out in terms of ideas, if the show continues?
MORGAN: So much. We have so much hashed out. J.J. and I first sat down, and we thought about if we had five seasons. So, we built out tentpoles for what that would be. Then, for Season 2, since we finished and drilled down on what Season 1 would be, I’ve already dug into what Season 2 could be and pitched it to the network and talked to them about it. They were excited, so, hopefully, if people tune in, and we get eyes, and people watch, maybe we’ll get a chance to have another season.
Duster premieres tonight, May 15, on HBO and Max.

Duster

Release Date

May 14, 2025

Network

Max

Directors

Steph Green