Apple TV has been on a terrific run so far this year with shows such as Widow’s Bay and Star City, and the streamer hopes the biggest title on its summer roster will continue the momentum. Widow’s Bay is poised to conclude its first season after tremendous word-of-mouth success and widespread acclaim, and Star City is just about finding its feet after escaping from the shadow of For All Mankind. This gives Apple’s third new series of the summer perhaps the best shot at success from day one. Not only is it technically an IP play, it also features A-list stars and counts legends Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorseseas executive producers.
The two icons joined forces when the property was being reimagined as a feature film in the 1990s, with Spielberg initially eyeing to direct. The film was eventually taken over by Scorsese, who roped in his regular collaborator Robert De Niro to play the showy central role — a deranged stalker, fresh out of jail for a crime he claims he didn’t commit, seeking vengeance against the prosecutor who tried his case. De Niro’s performance received acclaim, although the movie was seen as something of a brief detour into populism for him and Scorsese. It ended up grossing a staggering $182 million worldwide against a reported budget of $35 million. Scorsese would return to this strategy of balancing out his commercial misfires with stylish thrillers — Shutter Island, The Departed — that earn both money for the studio and goodwill for him.
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
03
What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
Apple’s Easy-to-Binge New Series Is Outperforming Proven Hits
Apple’s new limited series remake, Cape Fear, features Javier Bardem in the role made famous by De Niro, and by the great Robert Mitchum before him in a 1962 version. The 10-episode series also features Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson, taking over the roles played by Jessica Lange and Nick Nolte in Scorsese’s film, and by Polly Bergenand Gregory Peck in the 1962 version. This time around, the character played by Adams has been significantly beefed up compared to the previous iterations. Created by Nick Antosca, Cape Fear holds a “Certified Fresh” 75% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The site’s consensus reads, “Elevated by Javier Bardem’s manic charisma and the genre’s best pulpy intricacies, Cape Fear revitalizes the revenge thriller and manages to make a noteworthy name for itself.” According to FlixPatrol, the series took the number two spot on Apple’s viewership charts upon release, trailing Your Friends & Neighbors and outperforming both Widow’s Bay and Star City. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Release Date
June 4, 2026
Network
Apple TV
Showrunner
Nick Antosca
Directors
Amanda Marsalis, Morten Tyldum, Stephen Williams, Jon S. Baird, Jonathan van Tulleken, Reed Morano, S.J. Clarkson, Trey Edward Shults
Writers
Peter Blake, Alan Page Arriaga, Maria Jacquemetton
