Outcast, from The Walking Dead comics creator Robert Kirkman, is the latest in a stable of very unique, intriguing series that Cinemax has been claiming for itself over the last few years. From Banshee (which wraps up this week) to Steven Soderbergh’s spellbinding series The Knick, Cinemax has slowly been carving out a niche that has made it distinct from its HBO sister station, and getting away (somewhat) from its old “skin-a-max” connotations.

As fellow premium channel Showtime has been know to do for its series, Cinemax is now releasing the first episode of Outcast online two weeks before its official debut. Aubrey Page reviewed this episode for us from SXSW, and admired it for being “as harrowing as it is emotional.”

Check out the pilot, "A Darkness Surrounds Him," directed by Adam Wingard (The Guest), and if you are curious but don’t know much about the series, you can check out the synopsis below the video first. Outcast stars Patrick Fugit, Wrenn Schmidt, and Philip Glenister, and will premiere Friday, June 3rd at 10 p.m. ET on Cinemax.


Outcast follows Kyle Barnes, a young man who has been plagued by demonic possession all his life. Now, with the help of the Reverend Anderson, a preacher with personal demons of his own, Kyle embarks on a journey to find answers and regain the normal life he lost. But what Kyle discovers could change his fate — and the fate of the world — forever.

Patrick Fugit (“Gone Girl”) stars as Barnes, a man searching for answers, and for redemption, who sequesters himself from those he loves for fear of causing greater hurt. Philip Glenister (“Life on Mars”) stars as Reverend Anderson, a West Virginia evangelist who believes he is a soldier in God’s holy war against the forces of evil on Earth. An inveterate drinker and gambler, he doesn’t believe God intends people to sweat the small stuff. Gabriel Bateman (“Stalker”) stars as Joshua Austin, an eight-year-old who lives across town from Kyle. To his family’s dismay, he appears to be in the clutches of demonic possession, but there’s something very different about this possession and its connection to Kyle Barnes.


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Image via Niko Tavernise/FOX International Studios
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Image via Cinemax
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Image via Niko Tavernise/FOX International Studios