Peacock's Teacup Trailer Unpacks New Horror-Thriller Series From The Conjuring Creator

Peacock's Teacup brings alien horror to the streamer in time for Halloween.

By Spencer Perry

Peacock has already announced Halloween programming that includes a ton of horror movies, but the spooky season on the streamer is about to get even wilder. The full trailer for Teacup was released today, pulling back the curtain at least....a little bit on the new horror-thriller series. What becomes clear in this trailer for Teacup is....frankly not a lot. Partially accompanied to the tune of Harry Nilsson's "Think About Your Troubles," the new series hails from James Wan's production company Atomic Monster. Watch it for yourself above and we'll break it down below. 

What Is Peacock's Teacup About?

Here's the official logline for Teacup, that has been released by the streamer: "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." Based on what we saw in the above trailer, yeah, that sounds about right, but what else is going on?

Considering the series is based on a novel, the aforementioned Stinger by Robert McCammon, we can go to the book to find out more details. Based on the listing for the title online, potential spoilers if you want to go into Teacup totally blind, the original book is revealed to be about an alien that crash lands in West Texas. But the arrival of that extraterrestrial isn't the end of the tale as a second alien arrives on the scene and cuts off the entire town under a dome to hunt for their prey. That said, the adaptation of Stinger into Teacup is not one to one, and in fact the new editions of Stinger note that it "inspired" the new TV series. Also of note is series showrunner Ian McCulloch calling the TV series "very much its own thing."

Knowing that and going back to watch the trailer for Teacup, it does seem like that storyline is being adapted for the series, though what changes will be present remains to be seen. 

Who stars in the Teacup series? 

Yvonne Strahovski (The Handmaid's Tale) stars in the series as Maggie Chenoweth with Scott Speedman (Grey's Anatomy) starring as her husband James Chenoweth. Kathy Baker (The Ranch) also stars as Ellen Chenoweth, with Caleb Dolden as Arlo Chenoweth, and Émilie Bierre as Meryl Chenoweth. Boris McGiver (The Wire) also stars.

Behind the camera, Teacup hails from first-time showrunner Ian McCulloch (Yellowstone), working alongside executive producers Michael Clear (Archive 81, Swamp Thing) and Rob Hackett (Archive 81, I Know What You Did Last Summer) for Atomic Monster, Francisca X. Hu, and Kevin Tancharoen. Original novel writer Robert McCammon also executive produces. The first two episodes of Teacup are directed by  E.L. Katz (Cheap Thrills, The Haunting of Bly Manor)

Teacup will premiere October 10th with two episodes, debuting a pair of new episodes every week through Halloween.

"After reading Robert McCammon's book Stinger, the entire team at Atomic Monster felt a spark," James Wan wrote in a statement. "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. Add in our incredibly talented cast led by Yvonne Strahovski, Scott Speedman, and Chaske Spencer and fans are in for a true edge-of-your-seat experience. 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. We hope you enjoy this wild ride as much as we've loved creating it!"  

Peacock's Halloween programming

In addition to the arrival of Teacup, Peacock has confirmed that this October will make the streamer a major destination for genre fans. In just a few weeks a slew of movies will arrive on the platform including M. Night Shyamalan's Split, several Texas Chainsaw sequels, Jordan Peele's Get Out and Us, Amityville II: The Possession, plus a host of classic Universal Monsters movies like The Invisible Man Returns and Frankenstein. To keep things on track with the alien-horror nature of Teacup though, Peacock will also be streaming John Carpenter's The Thing and They Live, and Edgar Wright's The World's End. In addition, James Wan's cult horror film Dead Silence, plus the first Saw and Insidious, both of which he directed, will also be available. 

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