‘The Hot Zone: Anthrax’ Is Daniel Dae Kim’s Matthew Ryker Character a Real Person?
The Hot Zone Season 1 tacked an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the U.S. Now, the TV show is back for a second season, which looks at a different kind of biological horror. The Hot Zone: Anthrax dramatizes the 2001 anthrax attacks, which terrified the country in the weeks after 9/11.
‘The Hot Zone: Anthrax’ is based on a true story
The Hot Zone: Anthrax premiered Nov. 28 on National Geographic. The show, which stars Hawaii Five-0 alum Daniel Dae Kim and Scandal’s Tony Goldwyn, explores the FBI’s investigation into a series of anthrax attacks that began in September 2001, shortly after the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The attacks began on Sept. 18, when someone mailed four letters containing anthrax, according to a timeline of events from NPR. Soon after, several people who either worked at or visited the offices of American Media (publisher of the National Enquirer), NBC, ABC, and CBS came down with anthrax. Postal workers and a State Department employee also tested positive.
At first, people feared the attacks might have a connection to Al Qaeda. Later, suspicion settled on two different government scientists, Steven Hatfill and Bruce Ivins. But the person believed to be responsible wasn’t positively identified until several years after the attacks.
Daniel Dae Kim’s ‘The Hot Zone’ character is a composite
The Hot Zone: Anthrax is inspired by actual events and features a number of characters based on real people. Goldwyn plays Ivins and Harry Hamlin plays NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw. However, Kim’s character was created for the six-episode show.
Writers invented the Matthew Ryker character in order to have a person with a “personal stake” in the investigation, co-showrunner Brian Peterson told Variety. In real life, many people helped solve the mystery of the attacks. Kim’s character — an agent with expertise in microbiology who witnessed the attack on the Pentagon — is present at all stages of the investigation.
“[Ryker] was an amalgamation. The investigation itself took a number of years, and so for the sake of storytelling, we compress that time,” Kim explained in an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered. “The events that real FBI agents undertook to solve the crime and the mystery were actual events, but they were personified through some semi-fictional characters like myself and my FBI team.”
Tony Goldwyn talks about playing Bruce Ivins
While Kim’s character is a composite, Goldwyn plays Ivins, a scientist at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases who died in 2008.
“As people might remember, three weeks after 9/11, there were some letters sent out that contained Anthrax, which is a deadly powder,” the actor told EW. “A major FBI investigation was launched, and our story follows that and the story of one of the senior Anthrax researchers of the U.S. Defense Department, who I play.”
Goldwyn said he turned to books about Ivins and the anthrax investigation to prepare for his role.
“There was a very interesting biography written about Bruce called Mirage Man, so that was my primary resource,” he said. “Then there were three or four other books that focused a bit more on the investigation.”
The Hot Zone: Anthrax continues on Nov. 29 and Nov. 30 on National Geographic at 9 p.m. ET. Episodes stream the next day on Hulu.
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