The Big Picture
- Get ready for a rollercoaster of emotions with Netflix's upcoming thriller series Eric, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Vincent, a desperate father.
- Set in the gritty '80s New York City, Eric follows Vincent's journey as he looks for his missing son.
- Eric arrives on Netflix on May 30.
Your next mind-bending binge is just around the corner as Netflix has announced that its upcoming thriller series, Eric, will arrive on May 30, 2024, pairing the reveal with a fresh drop of first-look images. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog) as a desperate father at the end of his tether, the series has everything you could want in a drama - an abundance of emotion, layered family dynamics, and… puppets. We’ve loved the use of puppetry in recent years in shows like Eric Kripke’s Gen V and Don Mancini’s Chucky, but the story driving Eric colors its main puppet in an entirely different light.
The scene is set in Eric against the backdrop of a gritty New York City in the ‘80s where folks are struggling to make ends meet, the crack epidemic is raging in full force and the AIDS epidemic is calling humanity into question. It's in these surroundings that Cumberbatch’s Vincent is raising his nine-year-old son, Edgar. While the outside world may seem dark and dreary, Vincent’s job as a leading puppeteer and creator of a popular children’s show called Good Day Sunshine, keeps a little light streaming in. But, when Edgar goes missing one morning, everything in Vincent’s life plunges into total darkness. No matter how hard he tries, the worried father can’t find his son anywhere, and he begins to descend into a state of hallucination in which he delusionally sees his son’s blue monster puppet, Eric, as his one hope of finding his son.
The images tagging along with the arrival announcement showcase not just Cumberbatch - who fits right in with the decade in his very of-the-time glasses - but also other leading members of the cast including Gaby Hoffmann (Now and Then), McKinley Belcher III (Mercy Street), Dan Fogler (the Fantastic Beasts film series), and Clarke Peters (The Wire). Based on context clues from the pictures, it appears that Hoffmann will be portraying Edgar’s (Ivan Morris Howe) mother, while shots of Belcher III dressed in a suit and standing in front of a cork board with information tacked to it leads us to believe he’ll appear as one of the detective’s on the missing boy’s case.
Who’s Behind ‘Eric’?
With a natural knack for writing character-driven dramas, Abi Morgan serves the six-episode series as both its creator and writer. In the past, Morgan has been attached to a handful of award-winning productions on both the big and small screen as well as the stage. In television, her credits include The Hour and The Split, penning her name onto film titles such as The Iron Lady and The Invisible Woman. Working behind the camera and lending her creative vision to Morgan’s words and creation is Lucy Forbes, who joins as the production’s director. Forbes’ touch can be seen in a slew of other titles, including Season 2 of The End of the F***ing World and In My Skin.
Check out the first-look images in the gallery above and catch the binge-worthy series when Eric arrives on Netflix on May 30.