Based on the megahit Murdaugh Murders Podcast by Mandy Matney, Hulu’s upcoming Murdaugh: Death in the Family is a true-crime drama that delves into the double murder case that shocked the nation. The eight-episode miniseries centers on the story of Alex Murdaugh’s (portrayed by Jason Clarke) descent from the top of a small town legal dynasty to a prison cell for slaying his wife Maggie (Patricia Arquette) and son Paul (Johnny Bertchold), after the latter was involved in a deadly boat crash, and the aftermath threatened to expose years of Murdaugh’s financial misdeeds. The saga was — and still is — endlessly twisty, and like Matney’s podcast, which picked up days after the murders and concluded after Murdaugh was convicted in court for them, the new show aims to cover it all.

It’s the first screen version of the Murdaugh murders to actually incorporate Matney (Brittany Snow, seen in this exclusive image) and the other local journalists whose tireless pursuit of the truth helped expose everything that was hiding beneath the surface of the many scandalous headlines.

According to showrunner Michael C. Fuller, a South Carolina native himself, that wasn’t always the plan. “It certainly was not something that was baked into the beginning,” he told TV Insider. After digging into the story, which was invariably entwined with the media’s rapt coverage of it, he made a realization. “We needed some type of outside perspective. We needed someone who could voice some audience questions and concerns about, ‘Wait, what is this? What’s going on here? What is this world, and who are these people and and what does all that mean?’” Who better to do just that than the woman who vocally guided thousands of listeners through the various twists and turns in real time and, well, whose hit podcast is being adapted in this iteration.

“Really, in terms of the actual story that unfolded, Mandy and Liz Farrell and Teresa Moss — another reporter at The Island Packet — they were really at the forefront of this because of where the boat crash happened. That sets everything into motion. So we felt, without making it the Mandy show, Mandy had a role to play in this story as an outside agitator, as one of those elements — and Mark Tinsley [the Beach family’s attorney, portrayed by Tommy Dewey], who comes into play later in the series as well. The media presence embodied by Mandy, specifically … and Mark on the legal front, were really the two things that the Murdaugh machine could not completely silence,” Fuller explained. As a result, the series examines, “How does her reporting and her not going away impact the family and impact what the family is trying to do as they’re trying to navigate this tragedy, the boat crash, and what it means for all of them?”

Murdaugh: Death in the Family is not the first screen adaptation to dramatize the events of the double homicide, faked roadside shooting, embezzlement schemes, drug deals, and everything else that went along with the story. But for Fuller, what sets it apart is the careful approach to the headline-making materials.

“The thing that we just focused on was what we had in terms of Mandy’s access, Mandy’s insights, and then what our own feelings were in terms of what this story could be, and what it was. And I think that when we were able to see our cast come together the way that it felt like it was a very specific and real reason that this would stand on its own…. What was it like for them at their kitchen table in the wake of the boat crash? What was it like for the families that were caught up in the vortex of the boat crash saga, and or who were people who worked with Alex, or were friends with Paul, or any of those things?” Fuller said. “It’s that space between people that we felt creatively like we very much could find a way into that would be unique and fresh… It’s really with the benefit of Mandy’s reporting and her insight and her personal connections to the quasi-Murdaugh community of people who lived through it, survived it, and then, a cast of this magnitude that’s able to bring to life what they’re able to bring to life. And I think it’s really going to feel, hopefully, exciting and compelling… It’s a tragedy, but it’s hopefully one that people will find the level of humanity within this very complex, very complicated family.”

There are some creative liberties taken with the story in Murdaugh: Death in the Family. Chief among them is the inclusion of former housekeeper Gloria Satterfield (Kathleen Wilhoite) in the aftermath of the boat crash death of Mallory Beach (Madeline Popovich), when in reality, she died under mysterious circumstances on the Murdaugh’s Moselle hunting property the year before the wreck happened. “It was more helpful, emotionally, to see what does she mean to this family, what roles does she play, specifically with Paul,” Fuller explained of that decision.

The story will also incorporate another of the Hampton homicide mysteries that Matney covered extensively on the Murdaugh Murders Podcast: Stephen Smith. “We absolutely touch on and we explore the Stephen story,” Fuller teased. “A lot of that [coverage] is informed by this connection to Mandy who, in turn, has this connection to and is very close with Sandy Smith, Stephen’s mother. Sandy was incredibly helpful and fascinating in the way that we touched on this and the conclusions she’s come to, that are very recent conclusions… So I’m really excited for audiences to see how we were able to incorporate that.”

We’ll have to wait and see what else is in store with this adaptation when Murdaugh: Death in the Family‘s first three episodes premiere next month on Hulu.

Murdaugh: Death in the Family, Series Premiere, October 15, Hulu