‘The Essex Serpent’: Tom Hiddleston & Claire Danes Fight Hysteria in Eerie First Trailer (VIDEO)

The first trailer has dropped for Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes‘ eagerly-awaited Apple TV+ series The Essex Serpent which is coming this May. And it shows the forbidden romance their characters share as their English town confronts a mysterious mythical serpent.

Based on the Sarah Perry novel of the same name, The Essex Serpent is set in Victorian England and follows Cora Seaborne (Danes), a London widow who moves to neighboring Essex to investigate reports of the creature. There, she forms a surprising bond of science and skepticism with the married local pastor Will Ransome (Hiddleston), but when tragedy strikes their community, the locals accuse her of attracting the serpent into their lives.

The teaser opens with a man grieving over the death of a woman. Hiddleston’s pastor comforts the man, saying her death was an accident and not a result of her sins. It only gets more intense from there as the panic and hysteria builds among the townspeople. Check out The Essex Serpent trailer, below, to see all of the tension build.

The Essex Serpent debuts Friday, May 13 with two episodes. New episodes will come out every Friday, with the season finale dropping June 10. It marks Danes’ first TV role since the conclusion of Homeland and Hiddleston’s first of two Apple TV+ dramas he’s starring in. The Loki star will next appear in The White Darkness for the streaming service, developed by Soo Hugh (Pachinko).

Rounding out the cast are Hayley Squires (Collateral), Frank Dillane (Fear the Walking Dead, The Girlfriend Experience), Clémence Poésy (Genius, Harry Potter), Dixie Egerickx (The Secret Garden), Olivier Award winner Michael Jibson (West End’s Hamilton), Lily-Rose Aslandogdu (The Alienist), Jamael Westman (Anne Boleyn), and more.

The drama’s six episodes are directed by Clio Barnard and written by Anna Symon. The pair also serve as executive producers with Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, and Patrick Walters. See-Saw Films produces the series for Apple TV+.

The Essex Serpent Series Premiere, Friday, May 13, New Episodes Fridays, Apple TV+