This coming Friday, AppleTV+ was supposed to premiere an exciting and timely new series called The Savant. Jessica Chastain stars and executive produced the limited series, which is based on a real-life female investigator who tracked and infiltrated American hate-groups, groups who planned mass shootings and domestic terrorist attacks. Just this week, AppleTV+ pulled the series indefinitely. Guess why.
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.”
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.
A show about tracking violent white nationalist hate groups and disrupting their plans to carry out terrorist attacks, assassinations and mass shootings… and AppleTV+ directly says that they can’t premiere the show right now because of Charlie Kirk? Well, that’s something. Variety critic Aramide Tinubu wrote a column about AppleTV’s decision to indefinitely yank the series. Tinubu has already seen all eight episodes and was embargoed from speaking about the series until Thursday (which is quite common for reviewers). Tinubu noted:
Having watched the eight-episode series for review — which was set to be under embargo until Sept. 25 — it’s clear that “The Savant” is precisely the type of show America needs right now. It looks at a sector of mostly white male individuals who believe that America belongs to them. Fueled by hate, bigotry, xenophobia and misogyny, they talk cruelly and candidly online about enacting harm and violence toward individuals or “others” who they feel are unworthy of being in “their” country. Nowhere in the show does it mention Donald Trump’s name, and other than depicting white nationalists in a negative light, “The Savant” is a straightforward, non-controversial character study — and a well-paced thriller — about one woman trying to stop domestic terrorism.
It seems absolutely maddening that Apple TV+ would pull such a move, especially following the disaster that ABC and its parent company Disney faced after yanking “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air on Sept. 17, following his frank but fair comments after the death of Charlie Kirk. Like Disney/ABC, it seems that Apple TV+ is cowering to a presidential administration that appears to be more concerned with its own dialogue and viewpoints. As “The Savant” suggests, if we continue to exist in vacuums, unwilling to hear and listen to others while using logic and sound facts, then we are part of the problem.
Just… admissions all over the place, right? You mean Donald Trump is openly hostile to any business, group or TV show which doesn’t share his violent authoritarian view of the world? You mean businesses are openly capitulating to Trump in advance? You mean that Trumpworld would have a huge issue with a show about tracking white supremacist terrorists and trying to stop the next January 6th??
Photo & poster courtesy of AppleTV+.
Cowards.
Cowards, or conspirators.
Yep. Remember this when you get your next phone, laptop etc.
This is really worrying stuff. Both because the administration is tightening its grip on free speech. And because the media is obeying and capitulating in advance. The oligarchs are lining up behind the government and that’s a very dangerous thing.
Let’s see what Apple has on the table that needs admin approval. Is it tariffs on IPhones? Corporate America will be the death of America the country.
🎯
I was looking forward to this – I was going to subscribe to Apple+ just to watch this, and catch up on a few other things. Oh well. I guess I to get to vote with my dollars. Which, if things continue to go the way they have been, may be the only vote they let us keep.
Because it cannot be said enough the people running these corporations do not care about Democracy. They never have, they care about one thing: money and the ability to do through capitalism.
Follow the money.
It’s not that Apple thinks there’s gonna be a mass consumer boycot of products like iPhones + Macs + whatever new Apple goodies are on the horizon.
(although they’re worried about tariffs)
They know if they don’t play ball with this administration, their government contracts for iCloud data storage, AI, and whatever will all go to Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Thiel, Jeff Bezos, Zuck, Etc.
We’re f*cked.
I love Jessica Chastain. This is such a bummer!
Just called to complain to Apple. I’m on hold…