‘Teacup’ Release Date, Trailer, Cast, Plot, and More

[Note to the editor: Please help out with a cover image for this article]

Having petrified audiences with his horror films for nearly two decades now, James Wan’s next project is Peacock’s horror series, Teacup.

The show’s teaser trailer was revealed at the ongoing SDCC 2024, where the series had a panel featuring Wan, Ian McCulloch (one of the executive producers), and the lead star cast Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck), Scott Speedman (Grey’s Anatomy), and Chaske Spencer (Echo). Teacup will debut with its first two half-hour episodes on October 10, 2024, followed by two episode releases every week till Halloween.

The show is an adaptation of Robert McCammon’s New York Times bestselling book Stinger, which follows a small group of people who get trapped in rural Georgia and are compelled to counter an inexplicable threat. The teaser doesn’t give much away about the plot of the show and is just a montage of a swiftly rolling teacup with harrowing images on it, while the credits mention Wan and McCulloch’s names.

You can check out the official teaser of the show here:

While Wan is attached as an executive producer, the series will be directed by E.L. Katz, known for his exploits on Netflix’s 2020 gothic romance horror drama The Haunting of Bly Manor and 2017 Nikolaj Coster-Waldau starrer crime movie Small Crimes. While Wan is seldomly associated with television, this is not the first time he is attached to a small screen project in executive producer capacity, with previous credits including titles like MacGyver reboot, Swamp Thing, Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles, and more.

Wan mentioned what drew him and his production company Atomic Monster towards Stinger’s book, prompting them to go ahead with a television adaptation:

“After reading Robert McCammon’s book Stinger, the entire team at Atomic Monster felt a spark. 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.”

Statement by James Wan at SDCC 2024

The show has been defined by Wan as a “genre-bending” spectacle that will coerce the viewers to take a long, hard look at themselves. The director is no stranger to making audiences feel uneasy with the horror elements of his directorial works while simultaneously incorporating emotional and humane elements, and judging by Wan’s comments, Katz seems to have borrowed a leaf out of his book for Teacup.