The latest Stephen King adaptation, The Institute should be the perfect way to pass time until the new season of Stranger Things is released. Based on King's 2019 novel, The Institute centers around a mysterious facility housing a bunch of teenagers with supernatural abilities. Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman) is our protagonist, and we follow his story as he wakes up in his strange new surroundings and meets Ms. Sigsby (Marie-Louise Parker), the enigmatic head of The Institute.
Outside of the Institute, in a nearby town, we meet Tim Jamieson, a former police officer played by Ben Barnes (Shadow and Bone). Tim is eager to get a fresh start, but his peace and quiet doesn't last for long as he soon becomes entangled in the mysteries of the shadowy institution next door.
This supernatural horror series debuts this weekend, kicking off with a two-episode premiere on MGM+. Watch the official trailer below:
I got major X-Men vibes from that trailer, and there's definitely a little bit of Stranger Things DNA mixed in there, which makes sense since Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer were heavily inspired by King's older works. It sort of feels full circle that King may have been a little inspired by the Netflix show.
If you've read the book, then you'll notice that the trailer suggests the show is hewing pretty close to its source material. There's a shot of Ms. Sigsby's second-in-command, the menacing Trevor Stackhouse (Julian Richings), and the trailer ominously cuts to Trevor right after Ms. Sigsby says "we're not monsters."
There is also a shot I'm surprised they included in the trailer (spoiler warning!) toward the end, showing the building itself levitating off of the ground. The moment that happens in the book is during the climax, so it feels like a spoiler to feature it in the trailer. But who knows? Maybe they're doing things differently on the show.
Meet the cast of The Institute
As mentioned above, the show's teen protagonist is Luke Ellis, played by newcomer Joe Freeman. The other two starring roles go to Mary-Louise Parker and Ben Barnes.
Parker is an Emmy-winning actress best known for her work on Weeds, The West Wing, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Angels in America. She also has a prodigious theater background and was nominated for a Tony Award for her Broadway debut in Prelude to a Kiss. Parker is no stranger to the world of Stephen King, having starred in the television adaptation of Mr. Mercedes.
On The Institute, she plays the main villain, though her character Ms. Sigsby believes she's doing the right thing. Speaking with ScreenRant, Parker calls Ms. Sigsby a "master manipulator" and expands on the "logic to her madness."
After playing villains in shows like Westworld, The Punisher, and Shadow and Bone, Barnes is pivoting to a more morally sound character in Tim Jamieson, who has a more significant role in the show than he did in the book. On playing Tim, Barnes says it was nice to get back to playing someone people will root for. "I grew up watching those kinds of '80s and '90s films where you're rooting for the guy to do the thing. So, I think it was nice to get back to — even though he's a more stoic, quiet kind of character in that way, he's still a layered character, but somebody that you are rooting for to do the right thing. That was important to me," he told ScreenRant.
The series also stars Simone Miller as Kalisha, Jason Diaz as Tony, Brendan Beiser as Norbert Hollister, Fionn Laird as Nick, Hannah Galway as Wendy, Jordan Alexander as Kate, Martin Roach as Chief Ashworth, Mary Walsh as Annie, Robert Joy as Hendricks, and Julian Richings at Stackhouse.
The Institute director formerly worked on Game of Thrones
Here's an interesting fact for all you Game of Thrones fans: The Institute director Jack Bender previously directed two episodes of the acclaimed HBO show, including the popular season 6 episode "The Door," featuring Hodor's origin story. Bender received an Emmy nomination for directing that one; he also directed the subsequent episode, "Blood of My Blood."
Bender's filmography is impressive. Apart from Game of Thrones, he also directed many episodes of Lost, Alias, and The Sopranos, in addition to several King adaptations like Mr. Mercedes and Under the Dome. Recently, he directed episodes of another popular MGM+ series, From. Given his experience, I'm excited to see what Bender brings to the table for The Institute.
The writing team isn't too shabby either, with writer Benjamin Cavell having written on more than 20 episodes of Justified and helming the most recent adaptation of King's The Stand for Paramount+.
The Institute premieres with two episodes this Sunday, July 13 on MGM+, followed by weekly drops through August.
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