Apple TV’s ‘Ascension’ Raises Its Core Cast

Apple TV’s second series from award-winning director Alfonso Cuarón, Ascension, is bulking up its cast with an ensemble of recognizable faces. A psychological horror thriller inspired by the best-selling 2013 novel Last Days by Adam Nevill, the series was confirmed to be going forward in August 2026, with Outlander’s Caitriona Balfe attached to star and executive produce.

Cuarón’s first outing for Apple, Disclaimer, was unfortunately startlingly bad, a downright misguided attempt at parsing the current deeply misogynistic turn Western society has taken in response to women demanding men take accountability for the behavior. Despite starring A-list film star Cate Blanchett and Future Dame Lesley Manville, the series never seemed able to move past the sick thrill of punishing its horrible female characters, even though it ends with a conclusion that completely exonerates them.

Thankfully, the new series doesn’t seem to be aiming to rejoin the battle of the sexes for a second round. Instead, it promises to dig into extremist religious cults via the gaze of a documentarian.

Whether this new subject will make the series any less excruciating to sit through remains to be seen.

Here’s the series synopsis:

Ascension follows Rose, a relentless documentary filmmaker and recently divorced mother who is brilliant at uncovering others’ truths but struggling to resolve her own. When Rose begins a project on a mysterious 20th-century cult known as the Church of Ascension, she finds unexpected refuge in its teachings — until she discovers something far more insidious beneath. Ascension explores evil and innocence at the highest level, while asking how far we’ll go — and what we’ll sacrifice — to protect the ones we love, even when the greatest threat to them may be ourselves.

Balfe (Belfast) will star as Rose; Bill Nighy (Lazarus) co-stars opposite her as Zac, who brings her aboard the project. The main cast is rounded out by Christopher Chung (Slow Horses), T’Nia Miller (VisionQuest), and American actor Amanda Plummer (Run).

Alfonso Cuarón (Roma) co-wrote the series with his long-time collaborator and brother, Carlos Cuarón, and co-showrunners Natalie Erika James (Apartment 7A) and Christian White (Relic); James also serves as lead director. All four executive produce alongside Balfe, Gabriela Rodriguez & Richard Schwartz for Esperanto Filmoj, and Steve Golin, David Levine & Zack Hayden for Anonymous Content.

Ascension does not yet have a start-of-production date, but we expect filming to begin in late 2026 or early 2027, with a release date sometime in the 2027-2028 television season.

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