‘Tales of the City’ trailer: New look at Netflix revival teases drama to come
Mary Ann's back - but not everybody's happy about it...
By Will Stroude
Words: Will Stroude
The first official trailer for the Netflix revival of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City is here – and it looks like there’s gonna be plnty to sink our teeth when the eagerly-anticipated series arrives on 7 June.
After a 90-second teaser gave us our first look at the return of Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney) to 28 Barbary Lane last month, the new trailer gives us an insight into the drama which is set to follow her arrival as she reunites with her daughter Shawna (Ellen Page) and ex-husband Brian (Paul Goss) 20 years after leaving San Francisco to pursue a career on the east coast.
It also provides more glimpses of series newcomers including Looking‘s Murray Bartlett, who takes over the role of original Tales character Michael ‘Mouse’ Tolliver’, as well as former Girls star Zosia Mamet and RuPaul’s Drag Race season 8 winner Bob the Drag Queen.
Netflix’s 10-part revival, which was first announced in 2017, has already won early paudits for ensuring queer people have been heavily-involved in the series both on and off screen.
As well a boasting a diverse new cast of characters, producers have brought on LGBTQ directors and an entirely queer writing team to reintroduce the beloved series new and old audiences alike.
Between that and having Orange Is the New Black writer Lauren Morelli serving as co-writer and executive producer, hopes are high that the new Tales will capture the original while bringing the series firmly into the 21st century.
There have been nine instalments in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City book series since the first was published in 1976 – with the most recent, The Days of Anna Madrigal, coming 2014.
The original TV adaptation aired in the UK in 1993 on Channel 4 (and the following year on PBS in the US) – sparking plenty of controversy for its frank depiction of LGBT life in the process – before returning for two further instalments with 1998’s More Tales of the City and 2001’s Further Tales of the City.
73-year-old Maupin, 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.