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Good science fiction can evoke a sense of wonder in an audience like no other genre, and that is clearly what Amazon’s new series Night Sky is aiming to do. Night Sky, however, is also trying to balance that with something more down-to-earth and realistic. Its writer Holden Miller has described the show as “sort of experiencing something incredibly momentous, but from a place that feels like it's your own bedroom.” With acting greats Sissy Spacek and J.K. Simmons in the lead roles, Night Sky looks like it could be a gorgeous summer sci-fi series for everyone who looks up to the night sky and ponders the universe and their place in it.
Night Sky’s tone of “emotionally serious [but with] warmth and a humor and an escapist quality” as Holden Miller puts it, may be a difficult balance to pull off. But with an intriguing premise and fantastic talent involved, we’re looking forward to seeing how Night Sky accomplishes all this while also delivering an exciting and satisfying science fiction series that stays true to what Miller sees as its themes of “mortality, love, [and] family dynamics”. Here's everything we know so far about this exciting sci-fi series:
Where Can You Watch Night Sky (And When Is the Release Date?)
Night Sky is a co-production of Amazon Studios and Legendary Television, so it’s not surprising that it will be available to watch on Amazon Prime. All episodes of the eight episode season will be streaming on May 20, 2022. The series is rated as 13+. And in case you don't have a subscription yet, Amazon Prime Video regularly offers free trials for first-time users that give you unrestricted access to all Amazon Prime shows and movies for 30 days.
What Is Night Sky About?
Night Sky is a series about Irene and Franklin York, an older couple who years earlier discovered that their property contained a passage to another world. They’ve opted to keep this other world a secret, but now they are older, and keeping this secret is harder with their granddaughter and neighbor becoming more worried about their odd behavior and their habit of sneaking around the property at night. Holden Miller said that the choice to focus the series on an older couple was because “Aging is a completely universal experience that hopefully we will all be lucky enough to experience and think about.”
Irene and Franklin begin to think it may be time to share their secret with someone, something that gains additional urgency when they discover someone else, a man (or possibly an alien) named Jude in the portal. Irene, Franklin, and Jude’s stories become entangled with that of an Argentinian mother and daughter, Stella and Toni, due to the strange workings of the otherworldly chamber.
Watch the Night Sky Trailer
A trailer for Night Sky was released on April 22, 2022. The trailer helps to establish both Irene and Franklin’s deep love for each other and also their sense of wonder and love towards the portal and world they discovered. Their personalities and reasons for keeping the discovery of the amazing portal a secret are clear, with Irene insisting that it is their mystery to solve. The trailer shows that the situation is changing though now that they are older and that they need to tell someone else about the secret. The sudden and unexplained appearance of Jude in their lives seems to upend everything they thought they knew, with Irene speculating on whether he could be an alien.
We also see clips of Toni and Stella in Argentina, though it isn’t entirely clear from the trailer how their story connects with Irene, Franklin, and Jude’s experiences. Even with all the action and mysteries, the trailer does an admirable job establishing Irene and Franklin’s long and loving relationship and their devotion to each other, something that clearly seems to be at the heart of the series.
Who Are the Cast and Crew of Night Sky?
Night Sky stars Sissy Spacek and JK Simmons as Irene and Franklin York. Academy Award winner Spacek has been acting in films since the 70s. Some of her most iconic performances include Carrie in 1976’s Carrie, Lorretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter, and Ruth Fowler in In the Bedroom. More recently she was in Homecoming and Castle Rock. Young Irene is played by Turtle Tale and Bernie the Dolphin actress Lily Cardone.
Spacek’s co-star JK Simmons is also an Academy Award winner, having won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Whiplash. He was nominated a second time for playing William Frawley in Being the Ricardos. Simmons has both DC and Marvel credits to his name, having played J. Jonah Jameson in multiple Spider-Man films and Commissioner Gordon in 2017’s Justice League. He’ll be reprising his role as Gordon in the upcoming Batgirl movie as well. Young Franklin is played by Lowrey Brown of Dopesick and Hillbilly Elegy.
Chai Hansen stars as Jude. In addition to playing a merman named Zac on Mako Mermaids, Hansen also stars as Monkey in New Legends of Monkey. Argentinian actress Julieta Zylberberg plays Stella in Night Sky. While not yet a household name in the United States, she has won multiple awards in Argentina for her roles in The Invisible Eye and The Holy Girl. Stella’s daughter Toni is played by Rocío Hernández. Adam Bartley, known for his roles in Longmire and NCIS: Los Angeles, will play the York’s nosy neighbor. Other cast members include Cass Buggé of Disjointed and For All Mankind and Polish actor Piotr Adamczyk, who was also in For All Mankind and played Tomas in Hawkeye.
Night Sky, which was originally going to be called "Lightyears", was filmed in Illinois and locals may recognize some Chicago suburbs including Woodstock, Frankfort, and Island Lake in the series. The show was written by Holden Miller, who is also the co-creator along with Daniel C. Connolly. The series is directed by Juan Jose Campanella, Philip Martin, and Robert Pulcini, among others.
Campanella previously directed The Secret in Their Eyes, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2010 Oscars. Campanella has also directed episodes of a variety of American television shows including House and 30 Rock. Martin has directed episodes of both The Crown and Catherine the Great and Robert Pulcini has directed episodes of WeCrashed and Shameless.