“Teacup” has set its spooky debut. UCP’s horror thriller will premiere its first two episodes on Peacock Thursday, October 10, followed by two episodes weekly. The final two will stream on Halloween.
The news was announced at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, July 24, during a panel featuring executive producer James Wan, executive producer and showrunner Ian McCulloch and stars Yvonne Strahovski, Scott Speedman and Chaske Spencer. Wan is best known for co-creating the “Saw” and “Insidious” franchises and creating the “Conjuring” universe.
During the panel, multiple clips were shown for the audience in Ballroom 20, giving a sneak peek of what’s to come. While one was edited down to be less gory and disturbing, it was still very gory and very disturbing, proving to be a very Wan-like project. The crowd was asked not to spoil any specifics.
“Teacup,” inspired by Robert McCammon’s bestselling novel “Stinger,” follows a “disparate group of people in rural Georgia who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat in order to survive.” However, very few details were revealed, so much so that it became a running joke during the hour-long conversation.
Chaske Spencer as Ruben Shanley and Scott Speedman as James Chenoweth
Mark Hill/PEACOCK
Wan was excited right away by the book “Stinger,” noting that his production company, Atomic Monster, “felt a spark” immediately.
“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,” he said.
Wan added that the show “defies easy labels,” falling into multiple genres — “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.”
Adelina Anthony, Caleb Dolden as Arlo Chenoweth
Mark Hill/Peacock
McCulloch said that since he’s not a “spectacle writer,” he wasn’t initially interested in adapting the novel. “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,” he said. “What if I adapted Stinger in a way that honors the book and stays true to the kinds of stories I like to tell? 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.”
For him, the series stands on its own as “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.”
Additional “Teacup” executive producers are Michael Clear, Rob Hackett, Francisca X. Hu and Kevin Tancharoen. The supporting cast includes Kathy Baker, Boris McGiver, Caleb Dolden, Emilie Bierre and Luciano Leroux.
Watch the teaser here: