In September 2025, Apple TV‘s release schedule included a highly anticipated thriller addressing state-of-the-art political and cultural issues in America. The series was slated to premiere on September 26, but three days before the premiere, Apple TV pulled it from the schedule and put it on indefinite hold. The streamer said it postponed the series “after careful consideration” and looked “forward to releasing it later.” While no official reason was given, the decision was largely tied to the assassination of right-wing political commentator Charlie Kirk less than two weeks prior.
The Turning Point USA founder was shot with a sniper rifle on a university campus in Utah while engaging students in political debates. The Apple TV thriller deals with issues relating to white supremacy, masculinity, and political extremism, and it contains scenes eerily similar to what happened to Kirk. Apple felt that the series would be triggering, even though it was filmed a year before Kirk’s assassination. To avoid controversy, like the one Netflix faced on the first anniversary of Kirk’s death after a tweet was grossly misinterpreted, Apple opted to hold on a while longer. However, the streamer maintained that the show would be released and that it had not been shelved for good. Rumors suggested that it would air last summer, but it didn’t. However, Apple TV has now confirmed to Deadline that the series titled The Savant will officially premiere next year.
The series was inspired by a feature article written by Andrea Stanley. It focuses on the titular character, an undercover investigator who infiltrates online hate groups to stop domestic terrorists before they strike. Jessica Chastain stars as The Savant alongside Nnamdi Asomugha, Cole Doman, Jordana Spiro, Trinity Lee Shirley, Toussaint Francois Battiste, and Pablo Schreiber. The Savant is set for a spring 2027 release, though there is no precise premiere date yet. If Apple TV follows the previous release format, The Savant‘s eight-episode season will premiere with the first two episodes, then a novel episode weekly until the season finale.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Iconic Fandom Should You Join? Harry Potter · Lord of the Rings · Star Wars · Star Trek
Eight candid questions about how you actually are: what you put on when you need cheering up, how deep you go into the things you love, what you argue about, what you keep on your shelf. Answer them and we will tell you where you belong. Four of the biggest fandoms on earth are taking novel members, and they could not be more different from one another.
⚡Harry Potter(Wizarding World)
💍Lord of the Rings(Middle-earth)
⚔️Star Wars(A Galaxy Far Away)
🖖Star Trek(The Final Frontier)
01
What do you put on when you need cheering up? Nobody is brave about this one.
02
How deep do you go into something you love? There is no shallow end here, only different deep ends.
03
What do you and your friends actually argue about? Every fandom has one argument it has been having for years.
04
How do you feel about a room full of strangers? Every one of these comes with a very huge room.
05
Where would you rather spend a week? Pick on instinct rather than on budget.
06
What do you believe about people, mostly? All four of these stories have an answer, and they disagree.
07
What is actually on your shelf? Look over at it before you answer.
08
What do you actually want from a story? Eight questions in, this is the one that picks your fandom.
Membership Confirmed Your Fandom Is…
Four of the largest communities on the planet, and four completely
different reasons to belong to one. Here is yours, what it would give you, and the argument you
would be having within a week.
Wizarding World · Books 1997 · Films 2001
Harry Potter
You belong to the fandom that is really about comfort. Hogwarts
works on people because it is a place rather than a plot, and the pull is not the wizard war
so much as the corridors, the food, the weather and the sense that somebody is expecting
you.
You are drawn to belonging, which is why this fandom sorted itself into houses within
about five minutes and has never stopped.
This is the most social of the four, and the one most likely to know which type every
single person in your life would be.
The books are built to be reread rather than analysed, and rereading is exactly what you
do with things you love.
The novel HBO series is bringing the whole thing back one book at a time, which means the
arguments are about to start all over again.
Middle-earth · Books 1954 · Films 2001
Lord of the Rings
You belong to the deepest fandom on this list, the one where
somebody has always read further than you and is quietly delighted to say so. Middle-earth
rewards patience more than any other world in popular culture.
You like the sense that the story you are reading is only the observable part of something
enormous, which is precisely how Tolkien built it.
This fandom takes adaptation seriously to a degree that other fandoms find slightly
alarming, and it has good reasons for that.
Your favourite thing about the books is probably the bit that is not action at all,
which is the walking, the songs and the long goodbyes.
Nobody here thinks heroism belongs to the powerful, and the whole story exists to make
that argument.
Star Wars · Lucasfilm · Since 1977
Star Wars
You belong to the loudest and largest tent of the four, the one
where three generations are all watching the same thing and none of them agree about any of
it. That disagreement is not a flaw in this fandom, it is the main activity.
You want something you can share with absolutely everybody, from a six year senior to a
grandparent, and this is the only one on the list that really does that.
Nobody argues like Star Wars fans argue, and the argument has been running since roughly
1980 with no sign of resolution.
The pull here is sensory before it is narrative, since it is the sound design, the score
and the look of a used and dented galaxy.
You would be first in the queue, in costume, with mighty opinions and a genuinely good
time.
Star Trek · Paramount · Since 1966
Star Trek
You belong to the thinking fandom, the one that turns up for the
argument rather than the explosion. Trek has always been a series of ethical problems in
space, and the people who love it love being asked what they would have done.
You are an optimist in a way that is currently unfashionable, and this is the only major
franchise still willing to say the future might be better.
The best episodes are the ones where nobody fires anything, which is a sentence that
makes perfect sense to this fandom and to nobody else.
Starfleet Academy brought the franchise back to a classroom in 2026, which is
appropriate, because Trek has always been a bit of a seminar.
You would want the conversation afterwards more than the episode itself, and here you
will always find somebody willing to have it.
‘The Savant’ Is a Tense Political Thriller About Domestic Terrorism
Apple TV has released the show’s trailer, previewing events in the series. The Savant has a fairly ordinary life as a wife and mother. However, her job is tracking domestic terrorist groups by joining their spaces and pretending to think like them. That’s how she stopped numerous threats before they happened. She keeps odd hours that affect her family life, and things are about to get worse when she zeroes in on a novel terror group whose leader is planning something massive. Suddenly, the safety and separation a screen affords aren’t enough when she’s exposed in the real world and must put her skin in the game.
The Savant arrives next spring. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates, including the precise premiere date.
