First Look at “The Shards”: Dahmer Creator Tackles America’s Most Controversial Author in New Series!

Ryan Murphy is gearing up for a big comeback, this time not on Netflix, but on Disney+. Known for his distinct taste for horror series (like American Horror Story, The Beauty, Ratched, Dahmer, and Monstres), the director is set to take up the camera once again with the adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis novel… again focusing on a dangerous serial killer. The first images have just been released!

First Gritty Trailer for Ryan Murphy’s The Shards

Surprisingly, on August 6, Disney+ subscribers will be treated to a new series that’s dark, stylish, and shocking: The Shards. This show is an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Bret Easton Ellis, the author of the best-selling book American Psycho, which was adapted into a film nearly thirty years ago by Mary Harron and starred Christian Bale.

Set in the early 1980s in Los Angeles, the story follows Bret, played by Igby Rigney (The Midnight Club), a seventeen-year-old from a wealthy family attending the prestigious Buckley preparatory school. He befriends Robert Mallory, played by Homer Gere (who is none other than the son of actor Richard Gere). As he grows closer to this handsome, brilliant, and enigmatic student, Bret becomes intrigued by a chilling true crime story: a serial killer known as The Trawler who targets teenagers within the city.

Less than a month from its release date, The Shards is showcased in a trailer where sex, drugs, alcohol, and blood mix freely… We see Bret pitching a book screenplay idea to his publisher. But in reality, this story is inspired by what he and his group of friends experienced with the arrival of the serial killer.

In this gritty trailer, we see the faces of other characters who will cross paths with Bret and Robert Mallory: Susan Reynolds (Kaia Gerber), Tom Wright (Graham Campbell), Liz Shaffer (Evan Rachel Wood), Debbie Shaffer (Hayes Warner), and not forgetting Terry Shaffer (Wes Bentley). Another series that promises to be shocking!

The episodes of The Shards will premiere on FX starting August 5, 2026, in the United States, and will be available on Disney+ in France the following day.