Aug 143 min read

PREVIEW: ‘Teacup' Peacock Reveals First Look at the Horror Series

Teacup appears to be an extremely eerie new horror series. The Peacock version of Robert R. McCammon’s novel Stinger is set to debut on the platform just before Halloween, and the initial visuals and clips from the show are truly disturbing.

The platform has disclosed numerous important aspects about Teacup, so here is all the information we have:

Peacock revealed that the series will premiere with its first two episodes on Thursday, October 10, with two episodes arriving weekly through Halloween for a total of eight, 30-minute episodes.

The main actors in the show are Yvonne Strahovski, Scott Speedman, and Chaske Spencer, who participated in the SDCC panel to introduce the series. The cast also includes Kathy Baker, Boris McGiver, Caleb Dolden, Emilie Bierre, and Luciano Leroux. Ian McCulloch leads the show, with direction by E.L. Katz. Executive producers of the series are McCulloch and Katz, along with author Robert R. McCammon, James Wan, Michael Clear, Rob Hackett, Francisca X. Hu, and Kevin Tancharoen.

The official logline of the adaptation is: “Teacup follows a disparate group of people in rural Georgia who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat in order to survive. Inspired by the New York Times bestselling novel Stinger by Robert McCammon.”

In the narrative of Stinger, the book that serves as the foundation for the series, the focus is on a Texas community grappling with poverty and discord. The situation takes a dramatic turn when an alien named Daufin appears in human guise, soon trailed by a ruthless alien hunter determined to eliminate her, even if it means obliterating the entire town. To avert further catastrophe, the remaining inhabitants must join forces with this otherworldly visitor to halt the impending threat.

Showrunner Ian McCulloch has provided a statement detailing his strategy for transforming Stinger into a series, as well as outlining the variations that fans of the book can anticipate in the on-screen adaptation.

“When Atomic Monster first approached me about creating a series adaptation of Robert McCammon’s Stinger—a no-holds-barred, gargantuan spectacle of a novel along the lines of The Stand, Independence Day and Mars Attacks—to be honest, I didn’t want to throw my hat in the ring. I’m not a spectacle writer. I’m a less-is-more writer,” the statement reads in part. “I gravitate more toward what are known as keyhole epics. Large stories told through small lenses. Think Signs, The Thing, A Quiet Place. But here’s the thing. I read Stinger and it stayed with me. Wouldn’t leave me alone. I just couldn’t stop thinking about its razor-sharp premise, how it unfolds over the course of a single harrowing day, and about the relatable and real family McCammon puts center stage. That’s when the flash bang-light bulb idea hit… What if I adapted Stinger in a way that honors the book and stays true to the kinds of stories I like to tell?”

He added: “Keep the conceit. Keep Stinger’s most effective elements. Take away the large ensemble. Take away the giant set pieces. Even take away the book’s crowded town setting. The adaptation would be like an acoustic guitar version of, say, a Radiohead song. It won’t have the production value, electronic instruments, loops, or synthesized bells and whistles but it will still have the melody, the structure, the lyrics, the real magic at the core, all the stuff that makes a great song a great song.”

Continuing, “Of course, during production the series changed and evolved. Just as it should. Even the title’s different. Stinger is now Teacup. The reasons for this are too spoilery to share but watch the first few episodes and all will be revealed. Point being, the series is now very much its own thing: a puzzle-box mystery, an edge-of-your-seat thriller, a can’t-but-must look horror story, a family drama, a science fiction epic—of the keyhole variety, of course. But as singular, strange, and surprising as I hope Teacup is, all you need to do is peel away the layers, characters, situations, and mythology and look behind the thrills, chills, hairpin turns and make-you gasp reveals. Do all that and you’ll see, at its heart, Teacup is still very much standing on the shoulders of Stinger. Just as it should.”