Take a dash of Arrival, sprinkle in some Signs, add a touch of Life and a heaping helping of Independence Day, and what do you have? The new Apple TV+ original series, Invasion. At least, that’s what it looks like from the first trailer.
From executive producer Simon Kinberg, best known for his work on Dark Phoenix, Deadpool, The Martian, and Star Wars Rebels, Invasion stars Sam Neill (Jurassic Park), Shamier Anderson (Wynonna Earp), Golshifteh Farahani (Gen: Lock), and Shioli Kutsuna (Deadpool 2) in a globe-trotting story of what happens to the world when, well, there’s an alien invasion. And while the trailer certainly looks like that aforementioned mashup for popular alien invasion movies of the past, one would assume Apple wouldn’t foot the bill for a show of this scale if it was cookie cutter like that. Check out the trailer and decide for yourself.
Kinberg is the big name producer but the show is also from David Weil (Hunters) with all 10 episodes directed by Jakob Verbruggen (The Alienist). It’s a stacked list of talent, to be sure, and the idea of a big-budget, well-paced series about an alien invasion is rather appetizing. The possibilities are endless, especially once you get into how and/or if the aliens and humans interact and where things might go from there. From this trailer, you can definitely see that these first 10 episodes will be about how the Earth changes, in all ways, with these new aliens.
As for the aliens themselves, they feel almost floral, do they not? Like something out of the third act of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad? Their ability to communicate—both with the characters and the audience—in a dramatic way could be a big part of if Invasion works or does not. It’s hard to tell if they’ll be memorable from this trailer.
But that’s kind of Apple TV+’s M.O. at this point. Most of its shows, even new Emmy winner Ted Lasso, don’t explode out of the gate. Shows like Central Park, Mythic Quest, and For All Mankind arrived with relatively no fanfare and have since built up big, passionate fanbases because they’re genuinely well-done. That’s gotta be the hope and expectation for Invasion as well.
Invasion’s first three episodes debut on Apple TV+ October 22, with the remaining episodes arriving each subsequent Friday. Are you gonna watch? Let us know below.
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