Apple TV has released the official trailer for Nocturne, a ten-episode crime thriller starring Liev Schreiber, Zazie Beetz and Stephen Graham. The first two episodes premiere globally on October 30, 2026, followed by one episode every Friday through December 25.
The killer is known. The dangerous part is getting inside his head
Schreiber plays Jonah Lynn, a former soldier who became a homicide detective and eventually grew tired of working the streets of Philadelphia. He moves his family to a small town in western Pennsylvania in search of something quieter. Jurek Walter makes that plan short-lived.
Graham plays Walter, the serial killer at the center of the case. When one of his victims unexpectedly turns up alive while another remains missing, the investigation becomes a race against time. Walter also brings the threat into Jonah's personal life, turning what might have been a procedural pursuit into something far less containable.
That is where Beetz's Saga Bauer becomes crucial. An FBI agent and Jonah's surrogate daughter, Saga is sent toward Walter in an attempt to extract information about his remaining victim. Nocturne therefore begins with an unusually clear antagonist and shifts the suspense toward manipulation, proximity and the cost of using another person as the way into a killer's mind.
A Scandinavian crime world rebuilt in Pennsylvania
The series draws on Lazarus and The Sandman, novels by Lars Kepler, the pen name used by Swedish writers Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril. This is not presented as a literal relocation of the books. The television version rebuilds parts of that crime-fiction world around an American setting and a newly configured lead.
Saga Bauer and Jurek Walter retain recognizable positions from Kepler's fiction, while Schreiber's Jonah Lynn gives the adaptation a different center of gravity. That choice may prove more important than the geographical move itself. Rather than treating the source novels as a blueprint to reproduce, Nocturne has room to preserve their psychological pressure while reorganizing the relationships around it.
A ten-week descent into the case
Rowan Joffe created the series for television and writes alongside John Hlavin, who developed Nocturne for television and serves as showrunner. Tim Van Patten directs the opening two episodes, with Allen Coulter, Logan Kibens, Anu Menon and Joe Chappelle also among the directors listed by Apple.
Bill Camp, Rory Culkin, Chrissy Metz, Poorna Jagannathan and Gary Carr round out the announced ensemble. Schreiber is also an executive producer, while Beetz executive produces through Sleepy Poppy. A+E Studios produces in association with Range Studios.
Yet the trailer's strongest hook is smaller than all that production machinery. It is the image of three people caught in one psychological contest: a detective who wants his old life behind him, an agent asked to move closer to the danger, and a killer who may still control the investigation even from behind a locked door.
