“The Shards,” Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis autofiction thriller novel, will premiere on FX and Hulu on Aug. 5 at 6 p.m. PT.
Set in Los Angeles in the 1980s, the dark, coming-of-age drama series follows Bret (Igby Rigney), an aspiring writer whose high school life begins to unravel when the arrival of a new student, Robert Mallory (Homer Gere), coincides with the growing terror of the Trawler, a serial killer stalking teenagers across the Valley.
As Bret’s imagination spirals, so does his relationship with his girlfriend Debbie (Hayes Warner) and friends Susan Reynolds (Kaia Gerber) and Thom Wright (Graham Campbell). As the group navigates senior year of high school — and the wealth and drug-fueled excess of L.A. private school culture — their youth is further compromised by the transgressions of the adults in their orbit: Terry Schaffer (Wes Bentley), Liz Schaffer (Evan Rachel Wood) and Steven Reinhardt (Jordan Roth).
“The Shards” hails from super-producer Murphy (whose recent output includes “Love Story,” “The Beauty” and “All’s Fair”) and EPs Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Ellis, Eric Kovtun, Scott Robertson, Nissa Diederich, Tanase Popa, Nick Hall, Michael Uppendahl, Max Winkler, Kathleen McCaffrey and Brian Young. The series is produced by 20th Television in association with Ryan Murphy Television.
A previous adaptation of the book, from “Less Than Zero” and “American Psycho” author Ellis, was in development at HBO with “Challengers” director Luca Guadagnino attached. Murphy took hold of the project in 2025 and brought on director Winkler.