'11.22.63' news, spoilers: JFK time travel series is a love story at its core, showrunner reveals

Hulu's latest original series, the time-travel thriller "11.22.63," is its biggest and most ambitious original production to date.

The eight-part limited series, an adaptation of the 2011 Stephen King novel "11/22/63," features "The Interview" actor James Franco as Jake Epping, a present-day English teacher who finds himself journeying back in time to try to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The three-year mission finds Jake following Lee Harvey Oswald and becoming deeply entangled with the relationships he builds in the past.

"11.22.63" showrunner Bridget Carpenter recently opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about the forthcoming series and said that although much of Hulu's advertising about the show is focused on the time travel and JFK assassination aspects, what attracted her to the project was that at its core, the series, similar to the novel on which it was based, is a romance.

"The fact that this is a love story and it wears the hat of an action movie, but really at it's core there's real romance — is exactly why I wanted to make it," Carpenter told THR. "But what a thing is, I think, is a little bit distinct from what you use to sell it. So it's kind of like, 'Come for the JFK and stay for the romance,' is how I look at it. I feel like the story speaks for itself."

The "11.22.63" showrunner also revealed that the on-screen chemistry between Franco and co-star Sarah Gadon, who portrays Sadie Dunhill, made showcasing the romantic element of the series easier.

"It very naturally unfolded," she said.

Apart from Franco and Gadon, "11.22.63" also stars Chris Cooper as Al Templeton, Cherry Jones as Marguerite Oswald, T.R. Knight as Johnny Clayton, Josh Duhamel as Frank Dunning, Daniel Webber as Lee Harvey Oswald, and Leon Rippy as Harry Dunning.

"11.22.63" premieres on Hulu on Monday, Feb. 15, which is, fittingly, President's Day. .