Something strange is going on with Jessica Chastain‘s streaming series The Savant.
Exactly one month ago today, The Savant was officially pulled from the Apple TV schedule. And it feels even longer, as The Savant was supposed to premiere on Apple TV when the SVOD app was still called Apple TV+.
The Savant, which originally had a Sept. 26 premiere date, was yanked in the weeks following the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative political pundit Charlie Kirk. Language on the landing page for the series has since vacillated from “Coming Soon” to “At a Later Date” to simply “2025.” As of this writing, the wording again reads, “At a Later Date.” (Lower down the same page it says, “Released: 2025″ — likely an oversight.)
It’s odd the language has been tweaked several times over the course of the month. Altering wording on the app is a manual process, and since each new iterative phrase basically means the same as the last, why do it? Yes, “Soon” means soon and “Later” means later and “2025” literally means this calendar year, but it’s all close enough considering the shifting language was first noticed as summer turned to fall. To not premiere in 2025 feels like a death sentence for the series.
A spokesperson for Apple TV did not respond to The Hollywood Reporter’s requests for comment. A spokesperson for The Savant’s studio, Fifth Season, also declined comment.
Reviews of The Savant had originally been embargoed until Sept. 25 — meaning that is the earliest they could be published — the day before the show was set to premiere, which is standard timing for Apple shows. (Critics must agree to an embargo in order to obtain advanced screeners.)
Now the Apple screener site, which is proprietary to Apple (in other words, not a catchall platform like Screeners.com), simply states that “All reviews are under strict embargo until further notice.” So many synonymous vagaries!
What’s this have to do with Kirk, the late leader of Turning Point USA? Kirk was shot in the neck from afar while delivering a speech on a Utah college campus. In the immediate aftermath, it was unclear — and hotly debated — exactly what Kirk’s alleged assassin Tyler Robinson’s motive was. It was almost certainly politically motivated of course, but in which direction? For a while, that depended on whom you asked.
On Sept. 17, Jimmy Kimmel was suspended from ABC’s airwaves after making reference to those shifting seas. Early reporting suggested Robinson identified with a group further to the right of Kirk’s ideals. The tide shifted in the days that followed, with the emerging consensus being Robinson acted on what he perceived to be anti-trans messaging by Kirk.
It was a messy time full of finger-pointing by both sides of the aisle.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said during a monologue.
That remark earned Jimmy Kimmel Live! what would become a three-day suspension following an affiliate backlash (which followed on social media). Kimmel returned to the airwaves on Sept. 23 — the same day The Savant was officially yanked.
“After careful consideration, we have made the decision to postpone The Savant,” an Apple TV+ (at the time) spokesperson said in a Sept. 23 statement shared with THR. “We appreciate your understanding and look forward to releasing the series at a future date.”
Chastain, who is the lead star and an executive producer of the series, was not especially understanding.
“I want to say how much I value my partnership with Apple. They’ve been incredible collaborators and I deeply respect their team,” Chastain wrote on her Instagram the following day. “That said, I wanted to reach out and let you know that we’re not aligned on the decision to pause the release of The Savant.”
She continued, “In the last five years since we’ve been making the show, we’ve seen an unfortunate amount of violence in the United States: the kidnapping attempt on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer; the January 6th attack on the Capitol; the assassination attempts on President Trump; the political assassinations of Democratic representatives in Minnesota; the attack on Speaker Pelosi’s husband; the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk; the recent shooting at an ABC affiliate station in California; and over 300 school shootings across this country,” she continued. “These incidents, though far from encompassing the full range of violence witnessed in the United States, illustrate a broader mindset that crosses the political spectrum and must be confronted. I’ve never shied away from difficult subjects, and while I wish this show wasn’t so relevant, unfortunately it is. The Savant is about the heroes who work every day to stop violence before it happens, and honoring their courage feels more urgent than ever. While I respect Apple’s decision to pause the release for now, I remain hopeful the show will reach audiences soon. Until then, I’m wishing safety and strength for everyone, and I’ll let you know if and when The Savant is released.”
Chastain executive produced via her Freckle Films banner and the limited series — inspired by a 2019 Cosmopolitan story — was long-gestating. Apple TV ordered the series from Fifth Season more than two years before it was given a release date.
Meanwhile, eight days after Apple postponed The Savant, FBI director Kash Patel shuttered the very real (though, secretive) program — a partnership with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) — on which the series (and the Cosmopolitan story) is based.
“James Comey wrote ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them — a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans,” Patel wrote on X. “That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.”
Ahead of this story being published, THR requested an update from Chastain’s direct spokesperson. We did not immediately receive a response.
So, what are the “relevant” parallels between the streaming series and the real-life tragedies (and one near-tragedy) named by Chastain? Though we still have to abide by the no-spoilers agreement tied to the embargo, there is some light we can shed.
The Savant stars Chastain as an undercover investigator who infiltrates online hate groups and takes them down from the inside. More specifically, Chastain’s character embeds herself on dark-web message boards spreading white-supremacist rhetoric. She participates in the conversation with a purpose: to identify and stop these men before they carry out heinous hate crimes.
The series does not parallel Kirk’s murder beyond its general plot line of identifying politically motivated attacks on specific targets. It could, however, be considered polarizing. This is hot-button subject matter, no doubt, presented in a way that could reinforce the left’s worst beliefs about the right and make the right think the left sees them all as awful, racist woods-dwellers. Almost every white male in the series is a terrible person griping about (and/or militantly plotting against) Blacks, women, Jews and/or immigrants, and at the risk of sounding like a sympathizer for the antagonists, they are all pretty cartoonishly-bad bad guys.
In the wake of the Kirk assassination, Apple likely just didn’t want to fan the existing flames of an especially tough moment. Good intentions, sure, but when is angry bipartisanship not going to be a part of the American culture? Not “2025,” for sure.
It is not unprecedented for TV episodes (and, more rarely, series) to be delayed or even scrapped altogether due to controversial and/or problematic (and usually topical) plot lines. There have been multiple episodes of shows in the Law & Order universe, for example, that were ripped from the TV schedule for being too ripped from the headlines. And episodes from various series like FBI, Shooter, The Last Ship, Mr. Robot and Hannibal — and even sitcom The Carmichael Show — have been either postponed or completely scrubbed due to depictions of (and in the last example, conversations about) gun violence following real-life mass-shooting events.
Readers can watch the trailer for The Savant here.
