HBO releases trailer and premiere date for Peterson drama series ‘The Staircase’

It feels like it’s been 50 years since we first got excited about the new “Staircase” drama series, way back when Harrison Ford was supposed to play Durham’s Michael Peterson.

Now, after seeing Colin Firth replace Ford in the lead and an A-list group of actors join the cast, we finally have a trailer and a premiere date.

“The Staircase” will debut on the HBO streaming service HBO Max on Thursday, May 5. We get the first three episodes on that date and then a new episode each Thursday through June 9.

The eight-episode limited series is based on the Netflix documentary series of the same name and follows the suspicious death of Kathleen Peterson in Durham, and the murder trial of her husband, Michael Peterson.

The Netflix series had French director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s film crew embedded with Peterson and his defense team, and followed the trial and its aftermath.

The HBO series will also draw on that series and other reports and books written about the case.

Academy Award-nominated Australian actress Toni Collette plays Kathleen, who was found in a pool of blood at the bottom of the back staircase in the couple’s Durham home in December 2001. Firth, an Academy Award-winning British actor, plays Peterson, who was found guilty in 2003 but granted a new trial after SBI misconduct was revealed.

Peterson took an Alford plea in 2017 and was released. He has been living in Durham since then, and in 2019 independently published two books, “Behind the Staircase,” and “Beyond the Staircase,” which chronicle his life since Kathleen’s death, including his time in prison.

According to Peterson, filmmakers also used his books as source material for the series.

The trailer shows key scenes from the immediate aftermath of Kathleen’s death, and at times, Firth sounds exactly like Peterson.

Firth said during an event for television critics in February that he didn’t talk to Michael Peterson for the role.

“I felt the way the script was structured and just the whole approach of this was its own ecosystem, so to speak,” Firth said. “These are created characters but we all know what the source is. We all know that these characters have names of living people, but it’s very carefully calibrated to tell the story in a certain way. I felt that I wanted to keep my inspiration, my motivation, and the sense of the source material, as much as possible contained within the script and the way it was written.”

Firth continued: “I felt that that could have been skewed in some way if I had personal connections, during the shooting of this, with Michael Peterson and other people concerned. If I’d had a personal response to the meeting, it might have prevented me from tuning into this world of varying possibilities that had been created.”

The new drama series is written and executive produced by showrunners Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn. Campos also directs six of the eight episodes.

The cast of HBO’s ‘The Staircase’

• Michael Peterson is played by Colin Firth, who won an Oscar for “The King’s Speech.”
• Kathleen Peterson is played by Toni Collette, nominated for an Oscar for “The Sixth Sense.”
• Sophie Brunet, the editor of “The Staircase” documentary who later had a romantic relationship with Peterson, is played by Juliette Binoche.
• Freda Black, one of the prosecutors in Peterson’s case, is played by Parker Posey.
• Candace Hunt Zamperini, outspoken sister of Kathleen Peterson, is played by Rosemarie DeWitt.
• Todd Peterson, son of Michael Peterson, is played by Patrick Schwarzenegger.
• Clayton Peterson, son of Michael Peterson, is played by Dane DeHaan.
• David Rudolf, Peterson’s defense attorney, is played by Michael Stuhlbarg.
• Martha Ratliff, raised by Peterson, is played by Odessa Young.
• Margaret Ratliff, raised by Peterson, is played by Sophie Turner.
• Duane Deaver, an SBI agent who testified at Peterson’s trial, is played by Myke Holmes, a UNC-Wilmington theater school graduate.
• Jim Hardin, Durham district attorney who led the prosecution, is played by Cullen Moss.
• Bill Peterson, Mike Peterson’s brother, is played by Tim Guinee.
• Caitlin Atwater, Kathleen Peterson’s daughter, is played by Olivia DeJonge.
• Ron Guerette, investigator for the defense, is played by Robert Crayton.
• Larry Pollard, the Durham lawyer who came up with “the owl theory,” is played by Joel McKinnon Miller.

This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 12:46 PM with the headline "HBO releases trailer and premiere date for Peterson drama series ‘The Staircase’."

Brooke Cain

The News & Observer

Brooke Cain is a North Carolina native who has worked at The News & Observer and McClatchy for more than 30 years as a researcher, reporter and media writer. She is the National Service Journalism Editor for McClatchy.