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With James Wan as the producer and approval from Stephen King, Teacup couldn’t have gotten a much bigger hype in the horror genre. Peacock’s sci-fi horror series is loosely based on Robert McCammon’s novel Stinger. Sadly, the series got the axe from Peacock after its critically acclaimed first season.

The series also boasted a talented star cast, featuring Yvonne Strahovski, Scott Speedman, Kathy Baker, Rob Morgan, and Boris McGiver. A group of people in an isolated ranch in rural Georgia are stuck together as they face a threat that they can’t see.

Rob Morgan as McNab in Teacup | Credits: Peacock

Created by Ian McCulloch, the series began streaming on the NBCUniversal-backed platform in October 2024. While it wasn’t as popular as other shows of the year, it received love from fans who got around to seeing it in the first place. The series ended its first season on a cliffhanger.

In the entertainment industry, several projects are tossed before they can make it to the development stage. Out of those that do end up being made, only a fraction of them end up surviving and getting more than a few seasons. However, the majority of these are canceled before they can take flight, ending the saga with just a single season, and leaving fans on a cliffhanger for the rest of their lives. This is what happened with Peacock’s latest TV series, Teacup.

Teacup | Credit: Peacock

A horror-thriller television show with a fresh premise, Teacup was a promising show that ended up being cut in this cut-throat world of streaming where stakes and losses are higher than in the world of television. Yet, the decision comes as a particularly bitter pill to swallow for viewers who found themselves enthralled by the show’s eerie settings, layered characters portrayed by a brilliantly talented cast,...

Peacock’s supernatural drama series Teacup unfolds on a rural Georgia ranch, where family tensions and dark secrets are intensified by a mysterious threat. Adapted from Robert R. McCammon’s 1988 novel Stinger, the show follows Maggie and James Chenoweth as they confront an otherworldly force that tests their fractured family and the bonds of their community. Here’s a guide to the cast and characters of Teacup.

Teacup Main Cast & Characters Yvonne Strahovski as Maggie Chenoweth

Maggie is the tough and resilient owner of the Chenoweth ranch, struggling to cope with her husband’s infidelity while facing a supernatural danger. A natural leader, she emerges as the focal point for the ranch’s resistance against the otherworldly being called “Assassin.”

Strahovski’s Notable Roles: Chuck (2007-2012), The Handmaid’s Tale (2017-), The Predator (2018) Scott Speedman as James Chenoweth

James, Maggie’s remorseful husband, is forced to face his mistakes after admitting to an affair.

Inspired by the novel Stinger from legendary author Robert McCammon and executive produced by James Wan, the new series Teacup is now streaming Peacock, with the final two episodes of season one recently premiering on Halloween.

Daily Dead had the pleasure of talking with actors Rob Morgan and Jackson Kelly about the respective journeys of their characters McNab and Travis, who cross paths in the pivotal fifth episode directed by John Hyams (who also worked with Jackson on season three of Chucky).

You can watch our full interview with Rob and Jackson below, and go here to catch up on all of our coverage of Teacup!

About Teacup:

Logline: 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.

Premiere Date: October...

This article contains descriptions of death and murder.

Spoilers for Teacup season 1 are ahead!

Teacup season 1 sets up a horrifying, sci-fi storyline packed with body-jumping aliens and a barrier that melts bodies, leading up to a heartbreaking but exciting ending. The Stephen King-approved horror show follows two rural families who get trapped inside a blue line, learning the horrors that will happen if they try to cross it at the end of Teacup episode 2. After the Chenoweths' 9-year-old son, Arlo, starts acting strange, they discover that hes possessed by an alien called Harbinger, who is on the run from an evil alien called Assassin.

Harbinger chooses to stay inside Arlos body, knowing that the adults will all help protect him, since the way Assassin would kill Harbinger is by murdering Arlo. The families try to discover the identity of the body-jumping alien, keep Arlo alive, and figure out a...

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the Teacup season 1 finale!Teacup star Scott Speedman offers a deeper explanation on James' fate in the season finale, alongside what could happen with him in a potential season 2. Season 1 of the sci-fi horror series ended with the characters in Teacup managing to trap James (Speedman) in a freezer while Assassin was inside of him, putting sandbags on the cover to keep him inside. As the scene played out, it became clear that James was going to die alongside the alien, marking an emotional end to his storyline.

Speaking with Screen Rant, Speedman discussed the "redemptive role" James had in Teacup, with his story ultimately coming full circle when he died with Assassin possessing him. However, despite confirmation from showrunner Ian McCulloch that his character is dead, the actor is still pushing for a surprise return in season 2. He cites how, because he seemingly died without the audience seeing,...

In the penultimate episode of Teacup‘s first season, we learned that the elusive Assassin had been hiding inside Valeria. After revealing itself to Nicholas, Assassin jumped bodies again and immediately pushed Valeria over the line of doom. (R.I.P., James’ mistress!) Sadly, we were robbed of any repulsive body horror on this lovely Halloween day (sorry, gore-hounds), but at least we were left with one helluva cliffhanger heading into its tense season closer.

When we pick back up with the gang of survivors, Ruben, McNab and Donald are trying to figure out how to destroy the alien tree,...

Note: This story contains spoilers from the “Teacup” Season 1 finale.

Yvonne Strahovski’s character Maggie and her husband James (Scott Speedman) have to make some truly heart-wrenching decisions that impact their entire family in the Season 1 finale of the Peacock sci-fi series “Teacup.”

TheWrap spoke with the actress about the “horrific” day that unfolds as Maggie tries to determine which one of the trapped humans are possessed by the hostile alien Assassin so she can protect her son Arlo (Caleb Dolden), who is Assassin’s target since he is also host to the benign alien Harbinger.

Assassin jumps through several hosts in the final episode, ending up in Maggie’s daughter Meryl (Émilie Bierre). Maggie and James already know that the only way to defeat Assassin is to drown the host and then try to revive them. Both don gas masks so Assassin can’t jump into their bodies and...

Ian McCulloch’s Teacup takes place at a ranch in rural Georgia that has seemingly been cornered by aliens from outer space. The show focuses on Maggie, her husband James, their children Meryl and Arlo, and James’ mother, Ellen. The chaotic situation brings Ruben Shanley, his wife Valeria, and their son Nicholas to the ranch. Donald Kelly and his wife Claire wind up there too, but the latter ends up falling into the “trap” that’s been laid by the aliens that causes any organic being to die in a very peculiar way where their flesh rots away and their bones grow out like branches. The alien species is apparently divided into the good guys and the bad guys, and Earth has become their battlefield. One of the good guys, named the Harbinger, resides in Arlo, while one of the bad guys, named the Assassin, keeps shifting from one body to another,...

The final two episodes of Teacup season 1 confirm that the series will return with a second installment, or at least it intends to do so. In episode 6, it was discovered that the assassin had moved out of Ellen’s body and had inhabited someone else, though we were yet to find out who the new target was. Naturally, everyone started to suspect each other, and it became challenging to figure out the assassin’s plan. In the 6th episode, we also learned that an assassin can be forcefully removed from someone’s body by drowning the host. This was McNab’s theory, and going by how things unfolded so far, he was the only person who had some idea about the aliens and their invasion plan.

Spoiler Alert

Who was inhabited?

I was hoping I would be proved wrong and someone truly unexpected would turn out to be inhabited, but the show is predictable,...

The fifth and sixth episodes of Peacock's new Stephen King-approved horror series Teacup finally started to fill in some gaps in the overarching narrative as it hurtles towards what promises to be a thrilling conclusion. With just two episodes left in the limited series' short season, the questions that have slowly been piling up since the gruesome ending to episode 2 finally got some answers in the form of a long flashback sequence centered around the mysterious man in the mask, McNab, and the young man who trapped James in the Navarros' basement, Travis.

The flashback provided some much-needed clarification about the origins of the two conflicting entities that jump from person to person on the Chenoweth Farm. Harbinger is the name given to the seemingly good entity that is inhabiting Arlo's young mind, while his more murderous counterpart is referred to as Assassin. At the end of Teacup...

Teacup episodes 5 and 6 give us all the answers that we’ve been hoping for. The episodes disclosed the role of Harbinger, the significance of the iridescent tree, or at least the idea behind it, and why the assassins were after Harbinger. There are good and bad aliens in the show, and for the time being, Harbinger is the only good one out there. Protecting him is crucial for the greater good, but to do so, the assassins must be dealt with. Maggie and James will clearly have to make tough choices to protect their son, Arlo, because, at its very core, the series is about a family withstanding the test of time.

Spoiler Alert

What was Travis’ connection with McNab?

James had no idea that he would find the answers to all his questions after being dragged into the basement of the Navarro house. A young man named Travis interrogated...

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Teacup!

Boris McGiver is a country man who must work with his neighbors to determine a horrific ordeal in Teacup. Son to acclaimed character actor John McGiver, Boris has steadily risen to stardom since holding early supporting roles in everything from the Queen Latifah-led Taxi to HBO's acclaimed crime drama The Wire and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. In more recent years, McGiver has found acclaim for his turns as Tom Hammerschmidt in Netflix's House of Cards, Monsignor Matthew Korecki in Paramount+'s Evil and Uncle George in Apple TV+'s Servant.

McGiver stars in Teacup as Donald Kelly, the rough-around-the-edges neighbor to the show's main family, the Chenoweths. While searching for his and his wife's wandering dog, Donald finds himself trapped along with the Chenoweth and Shanley families when the mysterious McNab paints a blue line around their properties, quickly learning it means...

When Stephen King beams about a new horror project, hardened genre fans take note. On October 10, 2024, the preeminent horror scribe took to X and professed his adoration for Teacup, a Peacock original horror series that premiered the same day. With two episodes released one week apart, the 8-episode TV event has not resonated as well among critics and general horror fans as with King.

Based on the 1988 novel Stinger by Robert McCammon, Teacup concerns a band of neighbors forced to cooperate and find a means of survival when a fatal force marauds their rural Georgia landscape. Although Stephen King has voiced a high opinion of the show, Teacup has been criticized as little more than an ersatz Walking Dead meets The Crazies mashup that neither terrifies nor adds much to the genre.

4/5 Teacup HorrorThriller Sci-Fi

Release Date October 10, 2024Main Genre HorrorCast Yvonne Strahovski, Scott Speedman, Chaske Spencer, Kathy Baker, Boris McGiver,...

If youve ever wondered what happens between takes on Stranger Things, one cast member is ready to share what its like working with fan favorite David Harbour, who plays beleaguered Chief Hopper in the hit sci-fi show. Rob Morgan's character, Officer Powell, became the new police chief when Hopper disappeared he was later found in a Russian gulag in Season 4. Morgan took time while promoting his pivotal role in Peacocks new horror thriller Teacup to share his experience working with Harbour.

David Harbour is very grounded, very cool. He's the kind of cat that'll be reading a book in between the takes, you know. You're like, Damn, that's so intelligent. He looks so cool over there reading that book in between takes, even though he's got like a five-page scene that we're doing, he still has the wherewithal to read some book. I was always impressed with David about that.

Filming the Peacock sci-fi series “Teacup,” in which residents of a farm in rural Georgia must band together to survive after a series of bizarre events, meant a lot of night shoots and frequent use of gas masks.

Neither aspect was easy, but the cast — including Scott Speedman, Yvonne Strahovski, Rob Morgan and Chaske Spencer — found ways to cope. Speedman, who plays father-of-two James Chenoweth, said that “your brain turns off” at some point when filming goes all night.

Morgan, perhaps best known as Officer Powell on “Stranger Things,” is McNab, the mysterious man who shows up at the Chenoweths’ farm in a gas mask and warns them not to cross a blue line he’s just painted around their property.

Chaske Spencer and Scott Speedman in “Teacup” (Credit: Peacock)

Although we don’t see the actor’s face for most of the series, the striking image of him in...

Inspired by the novel Stinger from legendary author Robert McCammon and executive produced by James Wan, the new series Teacup is now streaming its first two episodes on Peacock.

Daily Dead recently had the pleasure of talking with co-stars Rob Morgan (who plays the enigmatic McNab) and Chaske Spencer (who plays the ever-resourceful Ruben Shanley) about what attracted them to playing their intriguing characters on the series, working with showrunner Ian McCulloch, and seeing the world premiere of Teacup at Fantastic Fest!

You can watch our interview with Rob and Chaske below, and go here to catch up on all of our coverage of Teacup, which will release two new episodes on Peacock every Thursday through Halloween!

Teacup Synopsis and Cast & Crew Details:

About Teacup:

Logline: 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.

In the Peacock original horror series Teacup, the Chenoweth family is trapped at their rural farm due to supernatural circumstances, joined by family friend Ruben Shanley (Chaske Spencer) while the mysterious McNab (Rob Morgan) investigates whats going on. Created by Ian McCulloch, the series is a tense thrill ride unfolding over 48 hours as those affected by the strange incident gradually discover something far more sinister keeping them on the farm. With things already tense between the occupants of the farm, this only escalates the propensity for violence and personal stakes involved.

In an exclusive interview with Cbr, Teacup actors Chaske Spencer and Rob Morgan share how they developed each of their respective characters, praise the cast and crew for working with them to build the gripping television series and tease what audiences can expect when Teacup premieres on Peacock this October.

Cbr: Once the story gets going in Teacup, it never lets up.

“Teacup,” Peacock’s new series executive produced by James Wan, is a tricky one to write about. Writer, producer, and showrunner Ian McCulloch (Yellowstone) draws very little from Robert McCammon’s Stinger, opting for a modern, minimalist interpretation of the horror western, one driven almost entirely by its central mystery. The eight-episode inaugural season is so structured around its enigmatic threat, purpose, methodology, and reach that “Teacup“ becomes a landmine of spoilers to dodge for the sake of preserving its many, many surprises. While that makes for a lot of setup and character dynamics to establish, McCulloch’s careful plotting and effective atmospherics pay off, resulting in an intense, rewarding inaugural season.

Set in rural Georgia, the series sees a disparate group of people forced together by a mysterious phenomenon in their surrounding woods. The type that leaves them without electricity, cell phone service, or a way to escape whatever...

Plot: 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.

Review: The name James Wan attached to a production likely makes you think you are in for something similar to The Conjuring or Insidious. The filmmaker has become synonymous with scary movies as much as he has directed big-budget tentpoles like Aquaman and Furious 7. Still, his prowess as a producer has fostered several cool projects under his Atomic Monster banner in recent years. The new series Teacup carries Wan’s name recognition but is the brainchild of Ian McCulloch. Inspired by the Robert McCammon novel Stinger, Teacup is a unique and original foray into genre storytelling that combines horror, science fiction, and family drama for a creepy drama series that is much...

Showrunner Ian McCulloch has adapted Robert R. McCammon’s novel Stinger into a series for Peacock titled Teacup. The eight-episode series is debuting just in time for the Halloween season to deliver the scares. Yvonne Strahovski and Scott Speedman star in the mysterious thriller, which follows a group of neighbors trapped on a farm in Georgia by a mysterious threat.

Related Teacup Stars Scott Speedman, Emilie Bierre, and Caleb Dolden Talk Playing a Family in the Exciting Sci-Fi Mystery at Fantastic Fest Teacup Season 1 Review

Maggie and James Chenoweth find themselves on the verge of separation as James has cheated on her once again. However, a disturbance in the middle of the night finds the Chenoweths and their accompanying neighbors in trouble by a mysterious masked man. The masked man paints a circle around the farm, and if they cross it, a weird chain of events unfolds, killing the person.

Inspired by Robert R. McCammon’s novel Stinger, Teacup takes place in and around a small group of neighboring ranches in a remote part of Georgia, where something is seriously amiss. The animals notice it first, as they always seem to. Then the phonelines die, and the power goes out, including the batteries inside everyone’s car. Just as the ranchers start to suspect that someone or something is intentionally trying to cut them off from the outside world, a painted blue borderline appears on the ground around their ranches, confirming that fear. A mysterious man named McNab (Rob Morgan) warns them not to cross it and, as the first episode ends, we get a very vivid demonstration of what will happen if that warning is ignored.

It’s a compelling setup, isolating a bunch of characters in a single location and then weaving between their interpersonal drama and the overarching mystery.

If you haven’t heard yet, Teacup is the new horror series about to take over your screens — and trust me, you won’t want to miss it.

Inspired by Robert McCammon’s 1988 novel Stinger, Teacup drops viewers into the eerie depths of rural Georgia, where a mismatched group of locals must band together to survive a chilling and mysterious threat.

With its strange, suspenseful atmosphere and mind-bending twists, this series will keep you on the edge of your seat.

(Photo by: Mark Hill/Peacock)

Airing on Peacock starting Thursday, October 10, Teacup will deliver two tantalizing episodes weekly, totaling eight episodes, each packed with mystery, horror, and thrills.

TV Fanatic’s Carissa Pavlica sat down with some of the cast members, along with showrunner and executive producer Ian McCulloch, to get the inside scoop on why Teacup is a must-watch this Halloween season. Take a look!

All the Cards on...

When it comes to horror, a lot of it has become stereotypical. We know what is going on before the other characters do, losing some of the suspense. Teacup puts us in the horror with the characters, and that’s something we discussed with Chaske Spencer and Rob Morgan in this exclusive interview.

Spencer plays Ruben Shanley, a principled farmer who focuses on hard work. He has a teenage son an wife, and they all end up somehow trapped on the Chenoweth property. He doesn’t like James, but he does put his grudges to one side for the sake of safety and the group. So, why doesn’t he like James? What is the family history? That’s something we get to find out throughout the series.

Morgan plays “The Gas Mask Man.” Yes, this is the guy you’ve seen in all the promotional material, although we also...

Robert McCammon's cult classic horror novel Stinger is getting the screen treatment, with a twist, from Ian McCulloch in Teacup. Prior to the Peacock horror show, McCulloch had primarily worked as a recurring writer and executive producer in the world of television, having contributed to the likes of NBC's Chicago Fire, Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone and the short-lived Stephen Dorff neo-Western drama Deputy. While only a writer for 23 episodes of each, McCulloch was a consulting producer for far more of each series, with Chicago Fire being his biggest tenure for all 23 episodes of season 4.

With Teacup, McCulloch takes a very unique approach to adapting McCammon's novel, doing away with a large amount of it and instead focusing the story on three families on a rural Georgia farm rather than a small town. The families find themselves trapped by a circle painted by the mysterious McNab, a man wearing a...

Chaske Spencer and Rob Morgan play two figures on literally opposite sides of a mysterious line in Teacup. After first breaking out with his role as the werewolf Sam in the Twilight franchise, Spencer would start to gain steam on screen with the Banshee franchise, starring as Deputy Billy Raven, and continuing it with Giovanni Ribisi's Sneaky Pete, NBC's Blindspot and the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Echo, starring as the titular character's uncle. Morgan also has a history in the MCU, appearing in all six of Netflix's Marvel shows as Turk Barrett, as well as Netflix's Stranger Things, Don't Look Up and Smile.

Spencer stars in Teacup as Ruben Shanley, a local farmer living with his family in rural Georgia, who comes to his neighbors, the Chenoweths, for help when one of his horses gets entangled in a fence and is badly wounded. While on their farm, though,...

The James Wan-produced Teacup was one of my most anticipated 2024 horror shows, but the showrunner's claim it essentially ignores the source novel makes me nervous. Peacock's Teacup stars Yvonne Strahovski and Scott Speedman as a couple in Georgia who, alongside their neighbors, find themselves under siege by an otherworldly threat. The trailer for Teacup takes notes from Lost's playbook, keeping things very mysterious, but those who've read the book it adapts - Robert R. McCammon's Stinger - will have a clearer idea of what's happening.

Stinger feels like an unmade sequel to The Thing and involves an alien bounty hunter trapping a desert town inside an impenetrable dome. This creature can also absorb other lifeforms and make drones of them, with its signature attack being a spiky, barbed tail. I found Stinger to be a pulpy guilty pleasure, featuring both creepy scenes of horror and large-scale action.

Produced by James Wan (The Conjuring) and created by Ian McCulloch, Teacup is a new sci-fi/horror series based on the book Stinger by Robert McCammon. Although the show is best experienced unspoiled, we can tell you that it’s a tense, mysterious thriller about a group of neighbors who find themselves trapped on their farm by a mysterious threat.

At Teacup‘s Fantastic Fest world premiere, we got to speak with McCulloch and actors Rob Morgan (Mudbound) and Chaske Spencer (Twilight) about the show, their roles, and what makes Teacup such a unique specimen. Check out the full interview below!

Teacup Interview Teacup — “My Little Lighthouse” Episode 102 — Pictured: Rob Morgan as McNab — (Photo by: Mark Hill/Peacock) Related Get Away Fantastic Fest Review — Nick Frost Is Funny as Ever in Uneven Horror-Comedy

FandomWire: What was it about the book Stinger that intrigued you?

Ian McCulloch: Well, I read the book,...

Wednesday Season 1 introduces a variety of formidable villains for the titular heroine to face. One Addams Family villain unapologetically embodies privilege and conformity. This Addams Family villain continues to be a perfect foil for Wednesday Addams and could still offer an intriguing challenge for the macabre heroine in Season 2.

Wednesday Season 1 pits the titular heroine against a formidable group of adversaries, including a shape-shifting serial killer, the resurrected spirit of a genocidal pilgrim, and a seemingly benevolent teacher (played none other than former Wednesday Addams actor Christina Ricci) who turns out to be the most insidious monster of the lot. It's safe to say the hit Netflix series delivered more than enough villains for the Addams Family's tenacious daughter to handle, with more on the way for Season 2. They provide potent challenges for her to face, forcing her to think for herself and prevail without the support of her family.

One of the intense action scenes in Michael Mann’s neo-noir epic Heat is so realistic it’s been used by the United States Marines in weapons training. Heat is a taut cat-and-mouse thriller starring Al Pacino as Vincent Hanna, an obsessive LAPD lieutenant, and Robert De Niro as Neil McCauley, the notorious bank robber he’s desperate to catch. This marked the first time Pacino and De Niro appeared on-screen together; they’d both acted in parallel timelines in The Godfather Part II, but they didn’t share scenes in a movie until they made Heat.

Michael Mann's Heat has been lauded as one of the greatest and most influential movies in the action genre, with some of the most iconic set-pieces ever put on film. Its influence can be seen in everything from The Dark Knight to the video game Grand Theft Auto V. Hanna and McCauley are...