Netflix’s ‘Tales of the City’ revival gets premiere date and emotional first trailer – WATCH
A new generation of diverse stories will arrive on June 7.
By Will Stroude
Good news, Tales of the City fans: The first trailer for the Netflix revival of the hit TV adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s beloved book series is here – along with an official premiere date.
The first look at the 10-episode series, which is set to arrive on Netflix on June 7, gives us our first proper look at Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney) as she returns to San Francisco’s 28 Barbary Lane twenty years after leaving to purse her career.
It also provides us with glimpses of series newcomers like Ellen Page, Looking‘s Murray Bartlett, Girls star Zosia Mamet, and RuPaul’s Drag Race season 8 winner Bob the Drag Queen.
The TV adaptation of Tales of the City first aired in the UK in 1993 on Channel 4 (and the following year on PBS in the US), charting Mary-Anne’s journey as she moved to San Francisco and befriends the colourful fellow residents of 28 Barbary Lane.
The series returned for two further instalments with 1998’s More Tales of the City and 2001’s Further Tales of the City, and the latest outing is set to pick up the story 20 years later, as Mary-Anne returns San Francisco once again after leaving the city behind to pursue her career.
A synopsis reads: “Fleeing the midlife crisis that her picture-perfect Connecticut life created, Mary Ann is quickly drawn back into the orbit of Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis), her chosen family and a new generation of queer young residents living at 28 Barbary Lane.”
Tales of the City sparked plenty of controversy in the ’90 for its frank depiction of LGBTQ life – then still a rarity on television – and the new seres is set to bring a fresh collection of diverse LGBTQ stories to the small screen.
As well as a diverse new cast, Netflix’s revival has already won early paudits for ensuring queer people have been heavily-involved behind the scenes too: Orange Is the New Black writer Lauren Morelli serves as showrunner and executive producer, while LGBTQ directors and an entirely queer writing team are helping reintroduce the beloved series new and old audiences alike.
There have been nine installments in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series since the first book was published in 1978, with the most recent, The Days of Anna Madrigal, being published in 2014.
The 73-year-old author, who serves as a co-producer on the Netflix revival, said previously: “I couldn’t be more excited about this new brand-new incarnation of Tales. It’s set in present-day San Francisco with all the joys and complications that might suggest for the residents of 28 Barbary Lane”.
“Mrs. Madrigal’s tenants, both old and new, will be entangled in delicious new adventures and ever-expanding possibilities for love.”
All 10 episodes of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City will be available to stream on Netflix from 7 June.
Check out the first teaser trailer below: