Peacock drops trailer for unconventional missing kid thriller My Son, starring James McAvoy and Claire Foy

We’ve seen James McAvoy transform himself into a terrifying supernatural villain with multiple personalities, a classic Marvel character, and even a faun. But the trailer for Peacock’s new thriller My Son puts McAvoy’s award-winning acting skills to the test. You see, My Son isn’t your typical “parent searches for their kid” thriller. McAvoy wasn’t given a script, instead improvising his dialogue based on everyone else’s and using the little information he was given about his character. That means viewers uncover the mystery the same way the actor did.

“I’ve managed to have an experience that no actor gets to have,” says McAvoy in the trailer. (Though, we’d say that some actors actually have shared this experience; it’s what the The Blair Witch Project stars had to go through.) “I hope it will give the audience something really tangible that they can hang on as this thriller rattles along,” he adds.

My Son is directed and co-written by Christian Carion, created as an English-language remake of Christian Carion’s 2017 French film of the same name. In this version, McAvoy plays a divorced father whose son is missing on a camping trip, so he travels back to his ex-wife’s (Claire Foy) town to try to uncover what happened to the boy. The man soon realizes that his son isn’t just missing—he’s been kidnapped.

One thing we’re curious about is whether or not the ending will remain the same as in the original film. If it is, that kind of takes away the fun in trying to piece together what happened. But given Carion’s ambitious take on remaking his own film and putting yet another lead actor to the test of improvisation, we’re hoping this version gives us something new that is just as thrilling.

The film premieres on September 15 exclusively on Peacock.