Diksha Sundriyal
Western drama series, ‘Django’ takes the audience on a riveting journey of a group of characters whose lives are inextricably linked to each other. The show begins with a man who calls himself Django, arriving in a town established by a former slave named John Ellis with the intention of creating a refuge for people from all walks of life. Django comes to the town in search of his daughter, Sarah, and finds her ready to wed John. While Django tries to patch up with Sarah, they have to deal with the vicious and ruthless Lady Elizabeth Thurmann. SPOILERS AHEAD
Django Takes Place in the Fictional Town of New Babylon
‘Django’ takes place in the fictional town of New Babylon, founded by John Ellis and Sarah, as a part of their vision for the new world. The town is a short distance from Elmdale City, where Elizabeth lives. Both the cities are located somewhere in Texas, and most of the action in the series takes place here.
While both New Babylon and Elmdale have been sketched out to serve the purpose of the narrative, they have real-life counterparts. New Babylon bears a resemblance to an actual town called Babylon, which was founded by former slaves in the late 1800s. The small town got its own church, school, and other things but deteriorated in the early 19th century, turning into a ghost town by the end of the Second World War.
A similar fate befell real-life Elmdale, another ghost town in Texas that was founded in the mid-1890s but couldn’t sustain itself for long. It is not confirmed whether the show based its setting on these real-life towns, but it’s clear that the narrative in the show takes a completely fictional turn, with shocking twists and turns created to keep the audience entertained.
Django is Set in 1872
‘Django’ takes place in 1872, around seven years after the end of the American Civil War. With slavery abolished, free men like John Ellis try their luck in the new world, building things for themselves from scratch. John wants to create a haven for people from all walks of life, irrespective of their race and class. He wants New Babylon to be the place where anyone can get a fresh start and make something of themselves.
While we follow John, Django, Sarah, and Elizabeth in the 1870s timeline, the show also indulges in frequent flashbacks, where we get a peek into every character’s backstory, finding out the things that motivate them. One of the timelines that we follow begins more than eight years before the events of the show. This is when Django, aka Julian Wright, was still with his family, trying to find a safe space where they could live and flourish.
The flashbacks take us to the middle of the Civil War, where Julian becomes a Confederate soldier in the hopes of providing for his family. It coincides with the flashbacks from Sarah, who revisits her childhood while trying to make peace with the fact that her father has returned all these years after abandoning her and their family.
The flashbacks take us farther into the past when they take place from the point of view of John and Elizabeth. Their animosity in the present is fuelled by their history, which forges an unbreakable bond between them. This takes us back to decades before the Civil War when John was a young boy but not a free man. His journey to the present timeline of the show takes the audience through the many ups and downs in his life.
Read More: Julian Wright, aka Django: Is He Based on a Real Confederate Soldier?
