The minute and a half teaser trailer for HBO Max’s The Staircase introduces the key players in this limited series based on a true story and starring Colin Firth and Toni Collette. Firth plays novelist Michael Peterson and Collette stars as his wife, Kathleen, who died after falling (or being pushed) down a staircase.
HBO Max will launch The Staircase on May 5, 2022 with the release of the first three episodes. New episodes of the eight-episode limited series arrive on subsequent Thursdays, with the finale airing on June 9th.
The cast also includes Michael Stuhlbarg, Juliette Binoche, Dane DeHaan, Olivia DeJonge, Rosemarie DeWitt, Tim Guinee, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sophie Turner, Vincent Vermignon, Odessa Young and Parker Posey.
Antonio Campos (The Devil All the Time) created the series and is a co-showrunner along with Maggie Cohn. Campos and Cohn wrote and executive produced, and Campos also directing six episodes. Leigh Janiak directed the other two episodes of the limited series.
Michael Peterson’s story was the focus of Netflix’s critically acclaimed documentary series The Staircase which premiered in 2004. As Peterson’s criminal case continued, two additional episodes were added in 2013 followed by three more episodes in 2018.
On December 9, 2001, Michael Peterson’s second wife, Kathleen, fell down a flight of stairs in their North Carolina home. The amount of blood around her body was suspicious, as were the seven big lacerations on her scalp that didn’t seem to match with a short fall. Michael was almost immediately the prime suspect.
The HBO Max series charts the events surrounding Kathleen’s death and the criminal investigation that focused on Michael.
