At San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday (July 25) afternoon, the cast and creatives of Teacup revealed a first look at the creepy new horror series, an adaptation of Robert R. McCammon’s book Stinger.
Along with an unsettling video teaser, the streamer revealed a ton of key details about Teacup, so here’s everything we know.
When will Teacup premiere?
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.
Who stars in Teacup?
The cast of the show is led by Yvonne Strahovski, Scott Speedman, and Chaske Spencer, who were all on the SDCC panel to present the series. It also features Kathy Baker, Boris McGiver, Caleb Dolden, Emilie Bierre, and Luciano Leroux. Ian McCulloch serves as showrunner, while E.L. Katz directs. Executive-producing the series are McCulloch and Katz alongside author Robert R. McCammon, James Wan, Michael Clear, Rob Hackett, Francisca X. Hu, and Kevin Tancharoen.
Daniel McFadden/PEACOCK
What is Teacup about?
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.”
The story of Stinger, the book upon which the series is based, centers on a Texas town that’s beset with poverty and division until an alien in human form named Daufin arrives and is quickly followed by a destructive alien bounty hunter who’ll stop at nothing to destroy her (including leveling the whole town). The survivors have to work together with this extraterrestrial guest to stop the onslaught before it gets worse.
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What else is there to know about Teacup?
Showrunner Ian McCulloch shared a statement explaining his approach to adapting Stinger into a series and what differences fans of the book can expect to see on-screen.
“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?”
Mark Hill/Peacock
McCulloch’s statement continued, “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.”
However, he also reassured that the core of the story is still one with Stinger, 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.”
In a separate statement, executive producer James Wan said, “The story had all the ingredients for a captivating series and Ian McCulloch had a vision to bring it to life in a fresh way that was both startling and darkly atmospheric, but filled with a rich sense of humanity — often lacking in edgy narratives… Teacup defies easy labels. It’s a genre-bending blend of horror, mystery, and drama, with layers that unfold like a captivating puzzle. It goes beyond chills and thrills and holds up a mirror to humanity, exploring the darkness that resides within us all.”
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