Apple TV+ has postponed the premiere of new series The Savant starring Jessica Chastain in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination.
The Savant stars Chastain as a top-secret undercover investigator, nicknamed “The Savant,” who infiltrates online hate groups and takes them down from the inside.
“After careful consideration, we have made the decision to postpone The Savant,” an Apple TV+ spokesperson said in a statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter. “We appreciate your understanding and look forward to releasing the series at a future date.”
The Savant doesn’t parallel Kirk’s murder beyond its general plot line surrounding politically motivated planned attacks on specific targets. The political ideologies of Kirk’s alleged murderer, Tyler Robinson, have been widely (and wildly) speculated about and reported on, with both sides of the aisle pointing the finger at each other. Kirk was a popular conservative pundit.
The Savant, a limited series, was supposed to premiere its first two episodes on Friday, Sept. 26; the remaining six episodes were set to roll out one at a time over the next half-dozen Fridays. The Apple TV app now simply says The Savant is “Coming at a later date.”
Readers can watch the trailer for The Savant here.
The Savant is also executive produced by Chastain. The cast also includes Nnamdi Asomugha, Cole Doman, Jordana Spiro, Trinity Lee Shirley, Toussaint Francois Battiste and guest star Pablo Schreiber.
The Savant has been in the works for more than two years. Andrea Stanley, who wrote the Cosmopolitan feature on which the series is based, is a consultant on the series. Her August 2019 piece, “Is It Possible to Stop a Mass Shooting Before It Happens?” detailed a woman known as “The Savant,” an investigator whose job is to take down the country’s most violent men before they can carry out large-scale attacks.
Hailing from Fifth Season, The Savant is also executive produced by Kelly Carmichael for Chastain’s Freckle Films, Alan Poul, showrunner Melissa James Gibson and Matthew Heineman, along with David Levine and Garrett Kemble for Anonymous Content.
Kirk was shot and killed on Sept. 10 while delivering an address at Utah Valley University.