Scott Speedman Gets Abducted in Creepy ‘Teacup’ Trailer
Don’t cross the line.
That’s what the trailer for Teacup, the forthcoming Peacock series from horror mastermind James Wan, wants you to know.
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In the trailer (below) for the horror-thriller starring Yvonne Strahovski (Handmaid’s Tale) and Scott Speedman (Grey’s Anatomy), a boy (Caleb Dolden) goes on a walk and is seemingly changed forever by what he’s seen.
“He says we’re trapped,” he tells Strahovski’s character. Who? “The man in my head. We need to hide… because it’s coming. And it kills everything that gets in its way.”
The two minute-plus first look at Teacup is eerily set to Harry Nilsson’s “Think About Your Troubles.” The animals are scared. And an anonymous figure draws a line that, if crossed, leads to what sounds to be a gruesome death. Speedman’s character is warned by a stranger wearing a gas mask not to trust anyone, before he is seemingly abducted by a shadowy figure in a basement.
Teacup is inspired by the New York Times bestselling novel Stinger by Robert McCammon. The series follows a disparate group of people in rural Georgia who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat in order to survive.
Teacup releases Oct. 10 with eight 30-minute episodes. Two episodes release each week, concluding on Halloween.
Chaske Spencer, Kathy Baker, Boris McGiver, Emilie Bierre and Luciano Leroux round out the cast.
Teacup had released a first look at Comic-Con, where the team talked about gruesome elements in the series. Strahovski recalled getting squeamish after seeing a particularly graphic prosthetic. “This genuinely made me feel sick,” she admitted. And Speedman said working on Teacup reminded him of starring in the 2008 horror film The Strangers.
As for why the title changed from Stinger to Teacup, showrunner Ian McCulloch said the reasons are “too spoilery” to share, “but watch the first few episodes and all will be revealed.”
In a note to press, McCulloch said the Teacup adaptation 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.”
Wan added in his note, “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.”
Teacup is produced by Wan’s Atomic Monster with UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group. McCulloch (Yellowstone, Deputy, Chicago Fire) wrote the episodes and executive produces, along with director E.L. Katz; Wan, McCammon, Michael Clear and Rob Hackett for Atomic Monster; Francisca X. Hu and Kevin Tancharoen.
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