Under The Banner Of Heaven Trailer: Andrew Garfield Investigates A Faith-Shaking Murder
Andrew Garfield's very good year looks like it's about to become two very good years. The actor is front and center in the compelling new trailer for "Under The Banner of Heaven," the FX limited series based on Jon Krakauer's investigative book. The series looks to be moody and brutal, like "True Detective" set in Mormon country.
Garfield will play Detective Jeb Pyre in the series, which tells the true story of a savage 1984 double murder committed in Utah. Krakauer's book expands beyond the scope of a single crime to give a full history of Mormonism, attempting to explain how different strands of the same religion led to the fateful events of 1984. Dustin Lance Black wrote the script for the series. The character of Pyre is himself a devout Mormon, leading him to some painful places as he looks into a case that turns out to have religious influences.
A faith-shaking murder case
The new trailer shares more overt plot details than the show's initial teaser, giving a glimpse of Daisy Edgar-Jones as the case's central victim, Brenda Lafferty, and showing a teary-eyed Garfield surveying a haunting crime scene. "The evidence points to things and beliefs that I've only ever heard whisperings about," Pyre says, before being warned not to go digging in the past. Shots of Brenda at her wedding are gauzily beautiful, but later, we see her nervously tell someone off-screen that "an evil presence is in this family."
With its plucking string score, inkblot transitions, and olive-toned shadowiness, the new trailer makes "Under the Banner of Heaven" look more like a long-lost sequel season of HBO's existential murder show "True Detective" than ever. Quick clips of anxious-looking children, bloodied hands, and the starch-white clothing that's a signature of the LDS church only make the story about sullied faith look all the more intense.
This project would have been a must-watch even without Garfield's involvement, but the "tick, tick...BOOM!" actor's presence rockets it to the top of our watchlists. Garfield reappeared on the film scene in a big way in 2021, starring in four movies after two years without the release of a new project. "Under the Banner of Heaven" presents an even bigger leap for the actor, as it's his first-ever foray into American television–and his first TV role overall in over a decade.
"Under the Banner of Heaven" has an impressive supporting cast that includes "Falcon and the Winter Soldier" actor Wyatt Russell, "Yellowstone" regular Gil Birmingham, "Avatar" star Sam Worthington, and "Columbus" actor Rory Culkin. The series is set to premiere on April 28, 2022, on Hulu.Â
"Under the Banner of Heaven" is an original limited series inspired by the true crime bestseller by Jon Krakauer, which follows the events that led to the 1984 murder of Brenda Wright Lafferty and her baby daughter in a suburb in the Salt Lake Valley, Utah. As Detective Jeb Pyre investigates events that transpired within the Lafferty family, he uncovers buried truths about the origins of the LDS religion and the violent consequences of unyielding faith. What Pyre, a devout Mormon, unearths leads him to question his own faith.