USA Network’s Shooter to Premiere in November After Delays

USA Network announced this week that its new thriller series Shooter will debut on November 15th after twice being delayed in July due to police-involved shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge. Shooter will feature series star Ryan Phillippe (Secrets and Lies) as the main character Bob Lee Swagger, a highly-decorated former sniper in the United States Marine Corps who is activated again to help foil a presidential assassination plot. Instead, Swagger is framed for murder. Other actors in the series will include Arrow's Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Omar Epps (House), Eddie McClintock (Warehouse 13), and Shantel VanSanten (The Flash). Shooter is based on the 1993 novel Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter, and the 2007 film adaptation with the same name, which featured Hollywood A-lister Mark Wahlberg in the starring role. Wahlberg is also an executive producer on this series. The original novel and book series told the Bob Lee Swagger story as a Vietnam Veteran and was based on real-life war hero Carlos Hathcock, while the television series is modernized and will more closely follow the Wahlberg film. Shooter was originally set to air on July 19th, but was postponed after a sniper attack during a July 7th police misconduct protest killed five police officers. The series was again postponed for an extended period after a second gunman engaged in a shootout with law enforcement on July 17th in Baton Rouge, killing three police officers in that incident. Obviously, USA Network and the show's producers were sensitive to the summer events and held the show as to not be seen as exploitative or insensitive to real life tragedies. USA Network released a trailer and announced the new premiere date of November 15th to social media Monday night. There was a noticeable change in the imagery and marketing strategy for Shooter, with less emphasis on actual gun violence or the portrayal of the main character as an actual sniper.