This has officially been the year of Andrew Garfield, and we are absolutely not complaining. At Sunday’s Oscars, the 38-year-old Brit was nominated for Best Actor for his dazzling performance as late Broadway phenom Jonathan Larson in Tick, Tick… Boom!, though he lost the award to Will Smith. He also starred opposite newly minted Oscar winner Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, another buzzy film released late last year. And in December, he suited up in spandex for his viral return to the Spider-Man franchise in the record-smashing Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Now, Garfield is trying his hand at true crime with the upcoming FX series Under the Banner of Heaven. In the spooky first trailer for the dark drama, released on Tuesday, Garfield plays a religious detective tasked with solving a gruesome double homicide in Utah.
Adapted from the nonfiction bestseller by Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven is based on the true story of the 1984 murders of Brenda Lafferty and her 15-month-old daughter, Erica, at the hands of Brenda’s brothers-in-law. The tragic killings are tied to the family’s involvement in a radical, fundamentalist offshoot of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Garfield plays Detective Jeb Pyre, the devout Mormon assigned to the case whose own faith is tried by the role of religion in the brutal murders. “The evidence points to things and to beliefs that I have only ever heard whisperings about,” he says in the creepy, blood-stained trailer.
Normal People star and professional haver of bangs, Daisy Edgar-Jones, plays Brenda. Action star Sam Worthington, primarily known for playing Jake Sully in Avatar, also has a starring role.
Dustin Lance Black, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter behind Milk, is the creator and showrunner of Under the Banner of Heaven. The project is a personal one for Black, who was raised in the Mormon Church and whose previous credits include writing and producing the HBO polygamy drama Big Love. Ron Howard and Jason Bateman are also involved as producers, with David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water) directing.
Under the Banner of Heaven will be available to stream on Hulu on April 28 as the latest addition to the platform’s true crime offerings, alongside the scammer series The Dropout and the Elle Fanning-led The Girl from Plainville.
