Despite the whimsical nature we associate with fairies, a fairy tale is often dark at its core. Disney gave us the animated gifts of The Little Mermaid and Cinderella but their actual origin stories involve death, sliced tongues, and a severed toe. They are, in fact, horror stories with social observations and not-so-happy endings. Author Victor LaValle didn’t shy away from this disturbing model with his best-selling book The Changeling (2017) and its story about a couple’s dark journey following the birth of their child. That story is coming to life with The Changeling, an Apple TV+ series starring LaKeith Stanfield and Clark Backo. The first trailer for The Changeling is here and it captures the essence of its source material to sinister perfection.
For those who aren’t familiar, the book follows Apollo and Emma Kagwa, who are new parents to a baby boy. Emma begins to act strangely before she does something exceptionally heinous and disappears. This leads Apollo down a rabbit hole that opens up new avenues to him. The Changeling trailer’s use of “Stormy Weather” and its striking imagery is enough to count me in. Plus, it is horror with Black leads, which is always refreshing to see.
Here’s a quick synopsis of The Changeling TV show to bring its trailer into clearer focus:
Based on the acclaimed bestselling book of the same name by Victor LaValle, “The Changeling” is a fairytale for grown-ups. A horror story, a parenthood fable and a perilous odyssey through a New York City you didn’t know existed.
As we all know, parenting is scary as hell without strange portal happenings and such. We already feel sorry for poor Apollo. Stanfield is also an executive producer for The Changeling alongside Kelly Marcel, who takes on double duties as its showrunner.
The Changeling series will hit Apple TV+ on September 8 with its first three episodes. The remaining five episodes will drop each Friday through October 13. This year’s Nerdoween is going in the right direction.