Skip to main content

Andrew Garfield is on the case in Under the Banner of Heaven

There’s no doubt that 2021 was a banner year for Andrew Garfield, who not only reprised his role as Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but also earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his leading role in tick, tick…BOOM!. For Garfield’s next move, he’s headlining an FX original miniseries, Under the Banner of Heaven, which is heading directly to Hulu later this year.

FX has debuted the first teaser trailer for the drama, which is based upon Jon Krakauer’s 2003 true crime book of the same name. In the trailer, Garfield plays Detective Pyre, a man who is also an elder in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There’s a sense of foreboding in this teaser that reminds us of HBO’s True Detective. But for Pyre, the stakes are far more personal. A brutal murder has forced him to reexamine everything he thought he knew about his faith.

Under the Banner of Heaven | Official Teaser | FX

The actual crimes occurred in 1984 when Brenda Lafferty and her infant daughter, Erica, were murdered by members of an LDS splinter group who claimed that they received divine instruction to kill the mother and her child. The miniseries may take some liberties with the original tale, but it’s clear that Pyre is very disturbed by not only the murders, but the beliefs that allowed Brenda and Erica’s murderers to justify their actions in the name of the lord. Brenda is portrayed by Daisy Edgar-Jones, who rose to prominence in 2020 thanks to her starring role in the Hulu series Normal People.

Andrew Garfield plays a detective in Under the Banner of Heaven.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Dustin Lance Black (Milk, When We Rise) adapted Under the Banner of Heaven for television. Black is also executive producing the miniseries alongside Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. A series premiere date hasn’t been revealed, but it will stream exclusively under the FX on Hulu banner.

Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…
Best crime dramas like Under the Banner of Heaven
Andrew Garfield in Under the Banner of Heaven.

Crime seems to be pretty much everywhere on TV. There's fraud, scams, trials, and plenty of murder, but it can be hard to figure out which shows are actually worth watching within that burgeoning genre. In one of the busiest TV seasons in recent memory, Under the Banner of Heaven is preparing to join the fray, telling the story of a murder in the LDS church in the 1980s.

The true story behind the case, as well as the all-star roster of talent assembled to tell the story, make Under the Banner of Heaven one of the more intriguing series of the spring. Once you're finished with that series, though, you may be looking for others that scratch a similar itch. Here are 10 series like Under the Banner of Heaven that may fit the bill.

Read more
Shawn Levy and Ryan Gosling’s Star Wars film is coming in 2027
The logo for Star Wars: Starfighter.

It's been an open secret for a while that Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy is preparing his own Star Wars movie. What we didn't realize was this project will leap over most of the other Star Wars movies and land a release date near the 50th anniversary of the franchise. At Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, Lucasfilm officially announced Levy's film and confirmed that Barbie's Ryan Gosling will headline Star Wars: Starfighter.

https://twitter.com/starwars/status/1913040662628618670

Read more
First look at The Mandalorian & Grogu screened at Star Wars Celebration
Din Djarin flying while holding onto Grogu.

Lucasfilm didn't skimp on the first day of Star Wars Celebration 2025 in Tokyo. Hot on the heels of the announcement that Star Wars: Starfighter is heading to theaters in 2027, Lucasfilm turned the spotlight to the next film in the Star Wars franchise: The Mandalorian & Grogu. This continuation of The Mandalorian is currently in post-production, but fans in Tokyo got the chance to see the first footage from the movie.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, the film's director and co-writer, Jon Favreau, appeared alongside the other co-writer, Dave Filoni. They were also joined by Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, and even an animatronic Grogu that walked out on stage and waved to the audience.

Read more