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5 Things We Learned about Horror Series Teacup at San Diego Comic-Con
“If you’re squeamish, you have been warned.”
Have you been scared silly lately? Those who watched clips from James Wan and Ian McCulloch’s upcoming Peacock series can answer with a resounding “YUP.” Gasps and applause followed sneak peeks of the mysterious show at San Diego Comic-Con. One clip was prefaced by the panel moderator with “if you’re squeamish, you have been warned.”
We haven’t been given many details about the plot, but Teacup is adapted from the novel Stinger by Robert McCammon and follows a group of people in rural Georgia who face a mysterious, terrifying threat and must come together to survive. McCulloch described the show in a statement as “a puzzle-box mystery, an edge-of-your-seat thriller, a can’t-but-must look horror story, a family drama, [and] a science fiction epic.”
We attended the thrilling panel and sat down with Ian McCulloch and stars Yvonne Strahovski, Scott Speedman, and Chaske Spencer to learn more about the series. Read on for some of our takeaways.
1. The gore is gory. Like, really gory.
When talking about the horror elements of the series, showrunner Ian McCulloch said, “We didn't want to reinvent the wheel, but I wanted it to be something that I don't think anyone's seen before.” It seems that goal has been achieved. Though the footage shown at Comic-Con was heavily edited for an all-ages audience, it was intense enough that when the lights came up, the moderator exclaimed, “Who came up with that?!” McCulloch detailed the unusual inspiration for the gruesome practical effects: “driftwood, bonsai trees, and autopsies.” Strahovski added, “I've seen so many gory prosthetics, and this genuinely made me feel sick.”
2. The pandemic influenced the writing of the series.
While Stinger, the 1988 novel, takes place in a crowded town and features a large ensemble, Teacup pares things down. When asked about how the pandemic affected the series, McCulloch said, “The pandemic definitely played a part in the writing. A long time ago, a producer told me that horror is all about isolation, which is one of the smartest things anybody’s ever said to me about the genre.”
Speaking about the early days of COVID-19, he added, “We had to kind of batten down the hatches, and you end up being a little bit of a prepper.” So how did those experiences influence the story? “What they have is what they've got... the characters are in a pot of boiling water that they can't get out of.”
3. The second half of the season will get “crazier and wilder.”
Everyone was sworn to secrecy regarding plot details, but multiple actors alluded to the back half of the season going, shall we say, absolutely bananas. Speedman teased, “as we go into [episodes] 5, 6, 7, 8, it just gets crazier and wilder and wilder.” Strahovski, describing her character, said, “We certainly see [Maggie] deal with insane, extraordinary circumstances and having to make the worst decisions of her life that I definitely can't talk about today.”
4. Filming felt like summer camp for the actors.
Multiple members of the group spoke about how filming on location in Georgia – with plenty of animal actors in the mix – created a camp-like environment while shooting the extremely dark material. Scott Speedman said, “It felt like a summer camp kind of vibe. We were sequestered in Georgia all together doing this crazy show, which was a really challenging show to make, but it was a really fun show to do.” Strahovski shed further light on that, telling us, “We were trying to pull off a serious scene out of the barn, and then in the middle of some seriousness, you hear [goat noises] and everyone starts laughing.”
5. The series will make spooky season on Peacock even spookier.
Peacock announced Thursday that the first two episodes of Teacup will be dropping on October 10, with two new episodes dropping each week through Halloween.
Watch all horror movies on Peacock.
