'Outlander' Star's New Apple TV Thriller Series Officially Adds a Pirates of the Caribbean Favorite

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Apple TV logo 2026 Image via Apple TV

Published Oct 27, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT

In over three years at Collider, senior author Jake has now penned over 3000 articles covering a wide range of TV and film for the resources, lists, utilities, news, and interview teams. Alongside interviewing stars such as Selin Hizli, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Harlan Coben, and Chelsea Peretti, Jake was lucky enough to visit the set of Aardman and Netflix's Wallace and Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl in 2024, getting the chance to chat with four-time Academy Award winner Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. Jake has also worked for other publications, including Agents of Fandom. You can also hear Jake every week as the resident film and TV journalist on Track Radio. 

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Although the sci-fi genre is perhaps most famous on the streamer, Apple TV has a strong history of hosting horror shows. The biggest of these is Widow's Bay, a brilliant blend of comedy and horror that ran for ten episodes earlier this year and quickly picked up a renewal. "Widow's Bay becomes a haunting, deeply rewarding, and oddly charming series if you stick with it," wrote Collider's Emily Bernard in her review of the first season, which earned incredible widespread adulation from critics.

So popular was the series with critics that it earned an astonishing 14 trophies from a total of 19 nominations at this year's 78th Primetime Emmys. This helped make Apple TV the biggest winner on the night, as Widow's Bay picked up a well-deserved victory in the Outstanding Comedy Series category, as well as wins for lead comedy actor (Matthew Rhys), supporting comedy actor (Stephen Root), and supporting comedy actress (Kate O’Flynn). Hoping to cash in on some of that horror success on Apple TV is one of the streamer's most exciting upcoming projects: Ascension.

Inspired by the novel Last Days by Adam Nevill, Ascension is a must-watch upcoming horror project from the one-and-only Alfonso Cuarón, the winner of four Academy Awards. We already know that Outlander star Caitríona Balfe will lead the cast of Ascension, and now a British icon has been added in an as-yet-unknown role. Following his casting in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 2, the legendary Bill Nighy, arguably best known as Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean films, will join Balfe in Ascension. A logline says that the series follows:

"Rose, a relentless documentary filmmaker and recently divorced mother, brilliant at uncovering others’ truths but struggling to resolve her own. When Rose begins a project on a mysterious 20th-century cult known as the Church of Ascension, she finds unexpected refuge in its teachings – until she discovers something far more insidious beneath."

Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring

Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you.

😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)

🧸Chucky(Child's Play)

📞Scream(Ghostface)

🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files)

FIND YOUR NIGHTMARE →

01

Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you.

ASomebody falling asleep when they really should not. BA toy that has moved, and nobody touched it. CA phone ringing in an empty house. DA child talking to somebody who is not there.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything.

AI am exhausted and my mind is playing tricks on me. BSomething in this room is not where I left it. CSomebody is in here with me. DThis house has never felt entirely right.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does.

ANever fall asleep. BNever leave it out of your sight. CNever answer the phone. DNever go down to the basement.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight.

AConvince myself I imagined the whole thing. BTell someone, and brace for them not believing me. CWork out which person I know could be behind it. DGet everybody in the house into one room.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking.

AFine during. Wide awake at two in the morning. BShouting at the screen that nobody is listening. CCalling the twist out loud before it lands. DThrough my fingers, holding on to something.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing.

AFall asleep in a room I have never been in before. BKeep an old doll on the shelf facing my bed. CAnswer every unknown number that calls after midnight. DSpend one night alone in a house with a history.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do.

ANot wanting to turn the bedroom light off. BNot trusting one particular object in my house. CLooking twice at people I have known for years. DFeeling like something came home with me.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare.

AThat I am still asleep, and it knows it. BThat the thing nobody believed me about is here. CThat somebody with a key is downstairs. DThat something is in the doorway, watching us sleep.

REVEAL MY NIGHTMARE →

The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…

Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind.

Elm Street

Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument.

  • Freddy is horror's cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
  • You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your own head is where this does its damage.
  • These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
  • You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.

Chucky

Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.

  • Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
  • You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You know that feeling from real life too.
  • The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you have met those adults.
  • By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.

Scream

Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.

  • Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be somebody who was at the party.
  • You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the same way you watch films.
  • The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
  • Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.

The Conjuring

Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.

  • The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
  • Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
  • This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
  • Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one standing in the hallway.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

Caitríona Balfe's Latest Movie Is in Theaters

Before her starring role in this new Apple TV series, Balfe brought her credentials to a stunning new adaptation of Jane Austen's first publication, Sense and Sensibility. Directed by Georgia Oakley, the movie also stars Normal People's Daisy Edgar-Jones and Pond Life's Esmé Creed-Miles as Elinor and Marianne, the Dashwood sisters. So far, this acclaimed adaptation has earned just shy of $30 million at the global box office.

For more updates, make sure to stay tuned to Collider.

sense-and-sensibility-poster.jpg

Release Date October 16, 2026

Runtime 132 minutes

Director Georgia Oakley

Writers Diana Reid

Producers Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan, Jo Wallett, India Flint

Cast

  • instar53934406.jpg

    Daisy Edgar-Jones

    Elinor Dashwood

  • Cast Placeholder Image

    Esme Creed-Miles

    Marianne Dashwood

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