Apple is doubling down on the whole large-scale science fiction thing. After creating a reasonable amount of buzz around Foundation, the long-awaited Isaac Asimov adaptation in which Lee Pace plays a very tall galactic emperor named Brother Day, the world’s most successful cell phone maker is staying in the sci-fi section. Invasion, the company’s next foray into the worlds beyond cosmos, is bringing alien beings and Spielbergian closeups back home. Set on Earth and across multiple contents, the series follows different perspectives from people around the globe as they deal with a particularly threatening and explosive alien, um, invasion. [This is where we would insert that Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme, but sometimes, it’s more powerful not to meme]. Anyway, here’s the trailer.
The series comes from David Weil (Hunters) and Simon Kinberg, who most probably know from his run on the X-Men movies, which started pretty good and ended pretty badly. Still, it takes a real mensch to own up to a disaster like Dark Phoenix. After the film’s release, he told KCRW, “It clearly is a movie that didn’t connect with audiences that didn’t see it, it didn’t connect enough with audiences that did see it. So that’s on me.” Nevertheless, he’s got bona fides, including work on the Deadpool movies and 2015’s best comedy The Martian.
Invasion sees Sam Neill’s return to the world of science fiction action movies ahead of Jurassic World: Dominion, a film much like that third Fantastic Beasts is legally obligated to come out. Nevertheless, Neill’s participation is always exciting, especially after all those fantastic Instagram videos where he plays with ducks. So if doing another Jurassic World means he can continue playing with those little guys, we support the film’s release.
The first of Invasion’s 10 episodes will drop on AppleTV+ on October 22.