Steven Moffat's The Time Traveler's Wife TV adaptation set to debut on HBO this spring

“What is thrilling of the interaction of time travel and a love story here, is it makes the most common phenomenon of a completely happy marriage, interesting again. Love stories, or love movies, tend to end at the alter. We never do the bit where people are perfectly happy for decades because it seems like a dramatic thing. By scrambling it all up and constantly reminding you that love is inextricably linked to loss, which is a cheery thought, you make this very common phenomenon of a happy marriage, thrilling and full of attention and tragedy,” Moffat said during the HBO’s TCA press conference.

“I do love a time travel story in general, as my career would suggest,” he adds.

Based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife was previously adapted into a feature film starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana. Moffat offered up the ways in which the film and series will differ, saying “We can tell the whole story, the movie was a quite intelligently abbreviated version but abbreviating it you miss all the detail and complexity and make it all about the time travel and not about the love story.”

The Time Traveler’s Wife is slated to premiere on HBO sometime this spring. However, no exact date has been announced yet.