Academy Award-winning director Alfonso Cuarón (Roma, Children of Men) will develop Ascension for Apple TV, as first reported by Deadline. The new horror-thriller series will star Caitríona Balfe (Outlander, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance), who will also executive produce alongside Cuarón’s production company Esperanto Filmoj.
Ascension is inspired by the 2012 horror novel Last Days by Adam Nevill, which wrestles with themes of faith, sin, and sacrifice — both the spiritual and the literal kind. Although the basic premise, in which a guerilla documentarian begins to experience supernatural occurrences while investigating an obscure 20th-century death cult, remains the same, the TV adaptation has already distinguished itself from Nevill’s novel in several important ways. The novel’s Church of Last Days has become the Church of Ascension; most importantly, protagonist Kyle has been swapped for Balfe’s Rose, who Deadline describes as a “recently divorced mother, brilliant at uncovering others’ truths but struggling to resolve her own.” To what extent these changes will impact the overarching narrative of Ascension remains to be seen.
The series also marks the continuation of Cuarón’s existing deal with Apple TV. The writer/director signed a multi-year deal to develop several projects for the streaming giant, resulting in 2024’s erotic thriller miniseries Disclaimer. The series would receive multiple Golden Globe nominations and an Emmy nod; Apple TV’s decision to greenlight Ascension seems to indicate satisfaction with those results.
Balfe is, of course, best known for her role as Claire Fraser, the lead of the long-running historical fantasy-romance series Outlander, which released its tenth and final season earlier this year. Balfe herself received several Golden Globe nominations for the role in 2017. 2018, and 2019. Her other upcoming roles include Mrs. Dashwood in the latest adaptation of Sense and Sensibility and the female lead of A Long Winter, another dramatic thriller set entirely within the Pyrenees Mountains.
Per Deadline, Natalie Erika James and Christian White (Relic, Apartment 7A) will jointly act as showrunners for the series. They, along with Cuarón and his brother Carlos (Sugar Kisses, You Owe Me One) will write. No release date for the series has been set.