Teacup: Showrunner Ian McCulloch discusses book changes, the horror, and more

Ian McCulloch and James Wan have joined forces to bring us Teacup. It’s very loosely based on the Robert McCammon novel Stinger.

We actually get more of a character-driven horror, and we’re thrown straight in with the characters. We get to know what they know about the genre elements, and that keeps everything suspenseful. I had to start the interview with McCulloch asking about this decision to put us into the horror.

He made it very clear that this decision was intentional. It helped to bring the horror to life, and that’s what he wanted to do.

"I never want the audience to know any more than our characters, because ten you’re just waiting for the characters to catch up. So putting them in the same brain space and thought process as the characters is exactly what we want, because we need you to care about the characters."

It is important for us to feel what the characters are feeling. When it comes to TV shows and movies, the connection to the characters tends to be what makes us stay. Of course, good writing and fitting the genre is essential, but we also need to care.

"You can have all the horror you want, and all the thrills and the science fiction, whatever it is. But if you don’t care about the people, none of it matters. That’s just stuff happening."

Despite not being a parent himself, McCulloch has brought a parent’s worst fear to life. He has the ability to empathize and feel what it would be like, but he does it in a different way.

"I can understand the feeling of that loss of control…You don’t know where they are, you don’t know what’s happening to them, and you don’t have a plan to make it all go away…So I found it very easy to tap into…It’s probably a little easier for me than it is for someone who does have children, because for me it’s just a thought experiment."

Teacup is very loosely based on the novel. McCulloch read it and decided to focus on different elements within the story rather than the pure horror aspect. This was a risk. There was always a chance that nobody would want to do something like this.

“I wrote the first episode, I gave it to Atomic Monster James Wan, and said ‘Here it is. Do what you want to do with it.’ Luckily, they were on board, but it was a gamble.”

While it was a gamble, it has arguably paid off. This is heartfelt and raw. It was also more in McCulloch’s wheelhouse of skills when it comes to storytelling.

"The core of the story was really, really, really strong. But to make the book page for page, character for character, incident for incident, would be just such a gargantuan and very very expensive and very different from something that I would excel at."

In the end, Teacup went into the smaller moments within the book, making them larger and the larger genre elements smaller.

The show only has 30 minutes an episode, which certainly adds to the fast pace. McCulloch didn’t mind 30 minutes. In fact, he thinks that on a creative level, this was the best thing for the economy of the storytelling.

"You don’t get to stay in a scene for more than a page or two, or a minute or two…You have to move onto the next thing and the next thing. That works for the momentum of the show…That’s great for keeping the audience involved…You don’t get to say a lot; it’s all about subtext, and it’s all about not explaining things and moving on and moving on."

To end the interview, we discussed some of the more unique elements to the story. There are things that the more you think of it, the more you realize you haven’t seen them before, especially in a horror series setting. This wasn’t about reinventing the wheel, but about just adding to the horror and creating layers and intrigue into the story.

"We know that bad things are going to happen. People are going to succeed or fail. There’s going to be tragedy. There’s going to be triumph. What can we show them? They know what it is, but they haven’t seen it before. There’s some things that the idea was to have something horrific but that makes you lean in because it’s a little bit different than you’ve seen."

As you watch the series, you’ll understand this a little more. You’ll understand what McCulloch means by the crew talking about bonsai trees and driftwood and statues. You’ll understand the references to modern dance in the interview. This really is an artistic project as well as a horror series, and it’s going to sit with you for a while.

Check out the full interview with Ian McCulloch about Teacup below:

Teacup premieres on Thursday, Oct. 10 on Peacock with two episodes. Two episodes will then drop weekly until Thursday, Oct. 31.