UPDATE: The original version of this story inaccurately mentioned a second season renewal for Amazing Stories, but this was a misconception by our reporter at the TCAs. Our corrected story follows below.
Apple TV+ presented panels on the last day of the Television Critics Association winter press tour. The streamer finally announced premiere date for the long-awaited reboot of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories. The revival of the series has been one of the cornerstones of Apple’s originals slate, but this is the first word we’ve gotten on when the show will arrive, and it also came with an Amazing Stories first look photo.
Amazing Stories will premiere Friday, March 6 with the first five episodes, including “The Rift” for which Apple released a new image, which you can see below. Mark Mylod directs “The Rift” starring Kerry Bishe, Whitney Coleman, Trisha Mashburn, Austin Stowell, Ed Burns and Juliana Canfield.
We see Bishe standing with a young boy, likely her character’s son, standing in a field full of men in white suits and visors. They’re all looking up at the sky, giving us Spielberg vibes akin to E.T. The Extra Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kid. Unfortunately, Apple did not provide a synopsis of the episode, so we’re left wondering what they’re gazing at.
Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories lasted two seasons from 1985-1987 and had memorable episodes like Santa Claus getting arrested and a teenager getting magnetized by a meteor. Each episode was a standalone half-hour story, like Twilight Zone, but the twists usually had a more hopeful message and resolution than Rod Serling’s dark twists.
Each episode also had an A-list cast with stars like Kevin Costner, Patrick Swayze, Charles Durning, Gregory Hines, Sid Caesar, Harvey Keitel, Eve Arden, David Carradine, James Cromwell, Jon Cryer, Mark Hamill, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Charlie Sheen, Loni Anderson, Sondra Locke and more appeared on the show.
The modern day Apple incarnation has had a rocky development as original show runner Bryan Fuller departed the show. Now, Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz of Lost and Once Upon a Time run Amazing Stories. Additional executive producers include Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, Chris Long, Don Kurt, David H. Goodman and Spielberg himself.
Other Amazing Stories stars include Dylan O’Brien, Victoria Pedretti, Josh Holloway, Sasha Alexander and what will be the final performance given by the late Robert Forster. Directors include Chris Long, Michael Dinner, Susanna Fogel and Sylvain White.
Amazing Stories has quite the legacy to live up to since it features stories directed by the likes of Joe Dante, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Irvin Kirshner, Robert Zemeckis, Brad Bird, Tobe Hooper, and Spielberg himself. Hopefully there’s something good behind the scenes brewing with the filmmakers on board, and maybe we’ll be looking at a new wave of influential filmmakers.
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