On Monday, Apple previewed the first shows that will be coming to its streaming service, Apple TV+, launching this fall. In a bid to compete with the likes of Hulu and Netflix, Apple will start producing its own content. The tech juggernaut has signed major talent, including Oprah Winfrey, J.J. Abrams, Reese Witherspoon and Steven Spielberg, to make television shows and films for this new service.
Apple invited on some of these creators and stars to introduce these shows on stage. These creators previewed several other series in a highlight reel and a demonstration of how users will use the forthcoming television app on Apple devices. Tim Cook said that Apple TV+ will launch in over 100 countries sometime this fall.
Here are all the shows Apple has confirmed will air on its streaming service.
Oprah’s Book Club Show and Documentaries
Orpah Winfrey announced three new projects she is working on with Apple. The first two were documentaries that will stream on Apple TV+. One has the working title Toxic Labor and will focus on the damage of workplace harassment. The second is an unnamed multi-part series on mental health issues that are devastating lives across the world. Winfrey said that the goal of both shows is to “replace shame and stigma with honesty.”
In addition, Winfrey promised to revive a version of her talkshow, this time focused on books. In hopes of building “the biggest book club on the planet,” Apple will stream Winfrey’s conversations with authors.
Amazing Stories
Director Steven Spielberg will produce an anthology series inspired by a series of fantastical stories he read in a magazine as a child. Each episode will be a new story. Spielberg offered up the plot of one episode: A World War II pilot whose plane magically travels from the past to the present day. He says by the end of the series, fans will be able to identify one uniting theme.
The Morning Show
Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carrell star are teaming up for a drama that looks behind the scenes at a popular morning show. The two actors said that the series will explore the power dynamics between men and women in morning news shows, both in front of the camera and behind it. Aniston even teased that the show would engaged in conversations about gender and the workplace “that people are too afraid to have.” The Morning Show marks Aniston’s first time back on television since Friends, where Witherspoon guest-starred as her character Rachel’s sister.
See
Aquaman himself, Jason Momoa, and Alfre Woodard introduced a high-concept fantasy series from Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders). The show, which looks to have Game of Thrones-level ambitions, will take place on a version of Earth that was devastated by a virus. Only a few million people survived, and they all became blind in the process.
The series picks up centuries later when humans have rebuilt society around people’s inability to see. It’s even disputed whether sight ever even existed. The show will have the typical fantasy tropes of brave heroes, evil queens, but the actors said the story will challenge audiences to think about how much we depend on our senses.
Little America
Kumail Nanjiani will co-produce an anthology with his wife and collaborator on The Big Sick, Emily Gordon. The series will be based on the true lives of American immigrants. “When people defend immigration, they focus on the exceptionality of immigrants,” he said during his presentation, citing Albert Einstein. This show will instead focus on immigrants living everyday life. One episode will focus on a young Indian boy living in Utah whose parents run the motel until they were deported. The 12-year-old boy secretly ran the motel for 10 years on his own and even competed in the National Spelling Bee so he could ask Laura Bush for help.
The show will adapt from the true lives of immigrants from Iran, Syria, Nigeria, Mexico and many other countries. Nanjiani also announced that the majority of writers and directors on the show are immigrants themselves or the children of immigrants.
Helpsters
Helpsters is a new pre-school show from the creators of Sesame Street. The show stars a group of new muppets that team children to solve problems and “change the world” using coding.
Little Voice
J.J. Abrams collaborates with singer Sara Bareilles on a drama based on the story of her own life. The romantic and comedic show about being a young woman starting out in the music business in New York City. Bareilles will compose the music, including the theme song, which she performed at the event.
For All Man Kind
Apple showed a few shots from this series from writer Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) about a world in which the space race never ended. The series will star Joel Kinnaman.
Dickinson
Hailee Steinfeld will star as novelist Emily Dickinson in a 19th century coming-of-age story. Though Apple did not present about the series at the event Monday, they did show the first art from the show. Steinfeld was in the audience.
Are You Sleeping
Though Octavia Spencer did not present onstage at the Apple event, she featured in the teaser about Apple TV+. The actor will star in an adaptation of the bestselling crime novel about a hit podcast that reopens a cold case and unravels the life of the show’s protagonist.
M. Night Shyamalan Series
Shyamalan was among the directors highlighted in Apple’s promotional materials at the event. But Apple has kept the details of the thriller series, made by a man known for his twist endings, under wraps.
Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney Comedy
Two of the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia stars are teaming up for a half-hour comedy series. McElhenney will star and write the series set in a video game development studio, while Day will produce.
