Oscar-winning actress Jessica Chastain is known for her roles in gripping, intense thrillers like Zero Dark Thirty, and her new Apple TV+ series The Savant looks to be in much the same mould. The show sees her play a highly skilled investigator, whose job is to peer into the digital internet life of those who may be planning acts of violence and stirring up hate online. It’s set to debut on streaming in July- here’s everything you need to know:

What is The Savant about?

Like many of Chastain’s past high-profile works like Zero Dark Thirty, Molly’s Game and The Eyes of Tammy Faye, The Savant is based on a true story and real events. The show was originally set to release last September, but was pushed back by Apple due to political events in the US, and now arrives next month. The star plays Jodi Goodwin, who, on the outside, seems quite ordinary: a loving and hard-working mother to her kids. But in reality Jodi’s work is anything but ordinary: she’s become known as “the Savant”, thanks to her online expert presence as an undercover investigator who covertly infiltrates online communities that are most at risk of producing criminals: hate groups and other spaces that ferment extremism.

Her job is to prevent them from becoming criminals in the first place, or at least to try to stop them from carrying out terrible acts of violence. The series is based on the non-fiction article Is It Possible to Stop a Mass Shooting Before It Happens?, which appeared in Cosmopolitan in 2019. The series will explore how Jodi rises and cultivates her reputation as a “Savant” and is able to successfully pinpoint real and serious threats, but also the gruelling toll such an intense life takes on her both as a person and as a mother.

The official trailer for the series, released by Apple TV+, introduces us to Jodi and her family and the basic premise, as she accepts through an online account to “join” an attack plot. But while she’s clearly skilled at what she does, her husband and children are affected: her daughter confronts her as to what she’s doing “all day, all night sometimes?” hunched over a computer or phone. Her work is clearly getting results, and Jodi seems prepared to keep going- but will her efforts tear her family apart?

What else do we know, and is there a release date?

Despite fears the release of the series had been cancelled for good, in an interview with Variety following the delay, Chastain confirmed it was going ahead: “Before it was like, ‘I don’t know if we’re going to see it,’ but now I can say, ‘We’re going to see it’. The Savant will be eight parts long, and also stars Nmamdi Asomugha (The Good Nurse), Pablo Schreiber (First Man), James Badge Dale (King Ivory) and Dagmara Domińczyk (Succession). It’s currently set to arrive on Apple TV+ in July (an exact date is to be confirmed), and you can watch the trailer below.

Watch the trailer

Are you a Jessica Chastain fan- and planning on checking out The Savant?


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