HBO Damon Lindelof Drama ‘The Leftovers’ Reveals First Photo, New Details

The HBO year-ahead trailer that showed us our first look at 'Game of Thrones' season 4 also afforded a few brief snippets of 'LOST' creator Damon Lindelof's TV return in upcoming drama 'The Leftovers,' though the footage proved fleeting. Now, we've got our first official photo of lead actor Justin Theroux, as well as a few new details from Lindelof himself on the series and why it won't draw any 'LOST' comparisons.

Headed by actor/screenwriter Theroux and also starring Liv Tyler, HBO’s ‘The Leftovers’ follows those left behind on Earth after the biblical Rapture — those not chosen to be taken up to Heaven. The people of the small town must begin to rebuild their lives after the sudden and mysterious disappearance of over 100 people. Adapted from Tom Perrotta’s 2009 novel of the same name, the show’s pilot was directed by Peter Berg ('Lone Survivor').

Also among the cast are Christopher Eccleston, Carrie Coon, Ann Dowd, Amanda Warren,  Chris Zylka, Margaret Qualley, Michael Gaston, Max Carver, Charlie Carver, Annie Q, Paterson Joseph, Brad Leland, ‘Private Practice‘ vet Amy Brenneman and ‘Fringe‘ star Emily Meade. Entertainment Weekly nabbed the first photo, though it doesn't appear to show very much beyond Theroux in the lead.

Elsewhere, Lindelof expounded on the details and setting of the series, which he views to have a more finite endpoint and closing story to tell than that of 'LOST,' or rather, "the attitude of we’re just going to keep writing this show until we don’t want to write it anymore."

You’ve got this big, crazy, supernatural — potentially spiritual — idea that informs every episode of the show that we’ll ever make, which is that this thing happened, this sudden departure of 140 million people which depending on what side of it you’re on, could be the Rapture. There could be some yet-as-undetermined scientific explanation for it, but still it’s miraculous. The traditional way of telling this story is you’re in immediate aftermath of this event. It’s all that anyone can talk about. Dropping into these people’s lives three years later and saying ‘This is the moment in which they get back to their lives as they were or they decide that they can’t get back to their lives as they were,’ that’s a much more interesting idea. So all decisions that the characters are making is informed by a supernatural idea, but the show is not presenting ongoing supernatural phenomena. You’re not looking at the sky seeing dragons like you are in Game of Thrones...

This is going to be a show about sudden and abrupt loss and more importantly, what will at least in its initial presentation seem to be one that you can’t receive closure from. If someone dies, that’s a horrible thing and they must be mourned. But in this instance, you don’t even know if you’re supposed to mourn who’s been departed because they could be walking through your door tomorrow, or you could be zapped up or down or sideways to wherever they are. So this lack of understanding as to what just occurred is the most pervasive feeling, not just in the moment that it happens but certainly three years later when the story starts.

We're certainly on board to see what Lindelof and HBO come up with when the series premieres in 2014, but in the meantime, check out the first photo below, as well as the footage above for an early look at 'The Leftovers'!