Stephen King fans were originally supposed to see the release of Apple TV+'s Lisey's Story in 2020... but then the pandemic happened. As a result, production on the miniseries had to hit pause, and plans were delayed. For a long time we were left with no idea what was going on, and it was only back in February that the streaming service teased that the adaptation would premiere during the summer – but now we are over Boo'ya Moon excited to reveal not only that we now have a release date, but also a wonderful set of first look images.
AppleTV+ officially announced today that Lisey's Story, which will run as a eight-episode miniseries, is now set to premiere on Friday, June 4. Stephen King wrote the adaptation by himself, and the story follows the eponymous character (Julianne Moore) as she copes with the death of her husband, a world-famous writer, and faces down events that cause her to reflect on her marriage and recognize that she has a number of repressed memories. The limited series has an absolutely phenomenal cast, including Julianne Moore as the titular Lisey, Clive Owen, Joan Allen, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Dane DeHaan, and Ron Cephas Jones, and we now have actual stills that show us what the characters will look like.
Up at the top of this article is obviously a shot of Julianne Moore's Lisey, but below you'll find a shot of her from a flashback with her husband, Scott Landon (Clive Owen). Without giving away too much, this still is from an absolutely crucial scene where the couple sit under what they call the yum-yum tree, and Scott reveals a vital secret about his childhood that changes Lisey's perspective on everything.
Also playing vital roles in Lisey's Story will be Lisey's sisters – with whom she has some complicated relationships. The oldest sister is Amanda, who sadly suffers from emotional and mental issues, though at the same time Lisey is closer to her than anyone else in her family. She is prone to spells of catatonia, which looks to be what's going on with her in the below still (this is notably the second time that Joan Allen has starred in a Stephen King adaptation, having previously played the lead in Peter Askin's A Good Marriage)
Lisey's other key sibling relationship in the series is with Jennifer Jason Leigh's Darla, though that has its own complications, drama, and personality clashes . At the start of Lisey's Story, Amanda has one of her episodes, and Lisey and Darla have to come together to figure out what to do (Jennifer Jason Leigh is also Stephen King veteran, having previously starred alongside Kathy Bates in Taylor Hackford's Dolores Claiborne.
Having covered the people closest to Lisey in Lisey's Story, let's now take a moment to discuss the streaming miniseries' main human villain: Dane DeHaan's Jim Dooley. One of the stresses that the titular character has to deal with in the book are all of her deceased husband's never-published writings, which she is constantly hounded for by aggressive individuals that she dubs "Incunks" (a play on/short for "incuncabilla," which itself is a misremembering of the word "incunabulum"). There are a lot of assholes, but they are mostly harmless. Not Jim. Instead, Jim is an insane, obsessed fan who makes an agreement with a third party to get all of Scott's works by any means necessary.
Next up we have another still from a flashback, and one showing off the character played by Ron Cephas Jones. In Lisey's Story, Jones will be playing Roger Dashmiel, a professor at Scott Landon's alma mater who, during a flashback, introduces Scott during a special event that winds up going horribly, horribly wrong and sees the writer encounter a brush with death.
As for this last image... it's possible that the less that is said, the better – for spoiler reasons. Without explaining too much to those of you who have not yet read Lisey's Story, let's just say that it fits into the Stephen King tradition of seemingly normal stories being hit with an extreme dose of the fantastical. What's pictured below is an otherworldly location called Boo'ya Moon where some of the most consequential events of the book take place.
Lisey's Story is now less than two months away from its premiere – and fans can get extra excited because on June 4 the first two episodes will be made available to AppleTV+ subscribers. Hopefully the release of these stills means that the first ever trailer isn't long off; I'm keeping my fingers crossed. To learn about what other adaptations are currently in the works, be sure to check out our Upcoming Stephen King Movies And TV guide.
