Just over a year ago, the Peacock streaming service announced they were teaming up with genre filmmaker James Wan for a series adaptation of the 1988 bestseller Stinger, written by Robert R. McCammon (pick up a copy HERE) – and even at the time, it was clear that they wouldn’t be keeping the Stinger title, because the show was being referred to as the Untitled Ian McCulloch Project, since Yellowstone consulting producer Ian McCulloch was on board to write and executive produce the show. The project is now going by the title Teacup, and not only has Peacock given it a straight-to-series order (allowing it to bypass the usual pilot process), but Deadline reports that Yvonne Strahovski, whose credits include Chuck, The Predator, The Handmaid’s Tale, Stateless, Dexter, The Tomorrow War, and He’s Out There, has signed on to play the series regular role of Maggie Chenoweth. Strahovski will also be a producer on the show.
McCammon’s novel has the following description: The story takes place during a single twenty-four hour period in Inferno, Texas. Inferno is a town in trouble, driven to the brink by racial tension, gang violence, and a collapsing economy. But things can always get worse, and they do so with astonishing speed when an unidentified spacecraft crash lands in the desert outside of town, followed by a second craft bearing the alien being who will soon be known as Stinger. Stinger is a kind of interstellar hunter on a mission he intends to complete, whatever the cost. He brings with him an endless array of technological marvels and an infinite capacity for destruction that threaten the existence of Inferno, its inhabitants, and the larger world beyond.
Teacup will follow a disparate group of people in rural Georgia who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat to survive.
Wan is executive producing Teacup through his company Atomic Monster, alongside Michael Clear and Rob Hackett. As mentioned, McCulloch is also an executive producer on the show, as are McCammon, Francisca X. Hu, Kevin Tancharoen, and E.L. Katz, who will be directing the first episode. Danielle Bozzone is overseeing the project for Atomic Monster. The show is coming our way from UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group.
Have you read McCammon’s novel, and if so, what do you think of Stinger serving as the basis for a Peacock series? What do you think of the Teacup title, and the fact that Yvonne Strahovski will be playing a series regular? Let us know by leaving a comment below.