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Apple unveils new streaming service Apple TV+, led by Spielberg's Amazing Stories

By Josh Weiss
Apple streaming Tim Cook TV

Today, Apple released more exciting details on its upcoming ad-free subscription streaming service, which is officially called "Apple TV+" and will launch in the fall. Over the last several years, the tech company has been ordering/developing a full docket of original genre programming.

Once announced at the special keynote event in Cupertino, an in-depth black-and-white video on storytelling was screened, featuring Hollywood heavy hitters like Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Jennifer Aniston, J.J. Abrams, Hailee Steinfeld, Reese Witherspoon, Octavia Spencer, and M. Night Shyamalan.

The Storytellers Behind Apple TV+

Afterward, a number of celebrities showed up to talk about some of the upcoming programming on the service. Spielberg himself (rebooting his Amazing Stories anthology); Jason Momoa and Alfre Woodard (See); and Big Bird (Sesame Workshop teamed with Apple for a new preschool show, Helpsters) were some of the biggest genre reps there.

In particular, Woodard and Momoa gave us some major backstory on See, which we knew would feature copious amounts of world building. After a terrible virus decimated the planet's population, the survivors went blind. In the future, everyone has been without sight for so long, that they doubt that seeing ever existed in the first place.

A trailer teasing all of the new shows was also played, giving tantalizing views of the new shows. One jarring image (supposedly snagged from an episode of Amazing Stories) showed a headline proclaiming that the Soviet Union has landed on the moon, not the United States.

Apple TV+ Preview — Coming Fall 2019

Here are all the other genre shows we know about thus far:

  •  For All Mankind, a sci-fi series from Ronald D. Moore, the developer of Battlestar Galactica and Outlander.
  • An unnamed psychological thriller series from Glass director M. Night Shyamalan.
  • An unnamed sci-fi series from Simon Kinberg (writer/director of Dark Phoenix) and David Weil (creator of Amazon's The Hunt).
  • A show centered on Charles Schulz's Peanuts characters like Charlie Brown and Snoopy
  • A series based on Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits with Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) acting as a writer, director, and executive producer.
  • Wolfwalkers, an animated series about hunting evil wolves in Ireland, which features the voice of Sean Bean.
  • Calls, an English-language version of the French series that collects 9-1-1 calls and black box recordings, and other short forms of messaging systems that (per Macworld) denote some kind of oncoming doomsday event.
  • An adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation book series.

Back in October, reports swirled that the company was seeking to launch the streaming platform in the first half of 2019. Last month, speculation ramped up that the proprietary platform could arrive as early as April. They were all proven wrong by the keynote event, as Apple TV+ will launch in the fall in over 100 countries. No pricing info was given out just yet.