Netflix’s Benedict Cumberbatch Series ‘Eric’ Gets Late May Launch Date

Eric is coming to Netflix in late May.

Abi Morgan‘s UK-produced, U.S.-shot drama series, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a desperate father searching for his son in 1980s New York, will launch globally on the streamer on May 30. You can see a first look at the show above.

Cumberbatch is an exec producer on the show, which is from Chernobyl producer Sister. The likes of Gaby Hoffman, McKinley Belcher III, Dan Fogler and Phoebe Nicholls also star. Cast is rounded out by Clarke Peters, Ivan Howe, David Denman, Bamar Kane, Adepero Odyue, Alexis Molnar and Roberta Colindrez.

The six-part series from The Split writer Morgan was first unveiled as part of a five-strong Netflix UK drama slate that also included the recent One Day adaptation and Rahman’s London superhero series Supacell, which is slated to launch in June.

The emotional thriller follows puppeteer and children’s TV creator Vincent (Cumberbatch), who struggles to cope after his nine-year-old son, Edgar (Howe), disappears one morning on the way to school. Full of self-loathing and guilt around Edgar’s disappearance, he clings to his son’s drawings of a blue monster puppet, Eric, convinced that if he can get the character on TV his son will come home. As Vincent’s progressively destructive behavior alienates his family, his work colleagues and the detectives trying to help him, it’s Eric, a delusion of necessity, who becomes his only ally in the pursuit to bring his son home. 

Exec producers on Eric are Morgan, Cumberbatch, Jane Featherstone, Lucy Dyke and Lucy Forbes, the latter of whom is also director. Holly Pullinger is the producer, and filming took place in New York and Budapest.