‘The Shards’ is Ryan Murphy’s newest murder mystery starring sex, drugs and Kaia Gerber

This summer, a new sexy teen murder mystery arrives on FX. On Tuesday, the network dropped the trailer for The Shards, a thriller based on American Psycho novelist Bret Easton Ellis’s 2023 book of the same name. Set in 1981, the Ryan Murphy-produced series follows a group of wealthy Los Angeles teens whose world of privilege is thrown into chaos when a murderer stalks the city. But… could the killer be one of their own? 

That’s what the main character, high school senior Bret Easton Ellis (Igby Rigney, playing a fictionalized version of the author), suspects when new student Robert Mallory (Homer Gere) comes to town. But is Robert really the killer known as The Trawler — or is something else going on here? 

Whether the students of this elite private school will pause partying long enough to find out, though, is to be determined. 

Here’s what we know about The Shards. 

Who’s who in ‘The Shards’ 

Rigney, known for his work on Mike Flanagan shows like The Midnight Club and The Fall of the House of Usher, portrays Ellis in the new series. 

The Shards also stars the actor children of former ’80s power couple, Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere. Newcomer Homer Gere portrays new student Robert Mallory while Kaia Gerber — the daughter of Crawford and Rande Gerber, known for films like Bottoms and shows like Palm Royale and Murphy’s American Horror Stories — plays Susan Reynolds.  

Rounding out the group of badly behaving teens are pop singer Hayes Warner, who plays Debbie Schaffer and Hollywood newcomer Graham Campbell, who portrays Thom Wright. Wednesday‘s Owen Painter appears as well.  

Bentley, who previously starred on Murphy’s American Horror Story, plays Terry Schaffer, while Westworld alum Evan Rachel Wood joins as Liz Schaffer. Theater producer Jordan Roth will also appear in the show. 

Is ‘The Shards’ based on a true story? 

Nope. Though it does feature author Ellis as a character, The Shards is a novel with autobiographical elements. It began as a serialized audiobook on Ellis’s Patreon podcast before it arrived in novel form in 2023, and elements of The Shards echo Ellis’s real life. 

In real life, the author released his debut novel, Less Than Zero, in 1985. Inspired by (though not directly based on) his experiences as a privileged L.A. teen, it was published when Ellis was a 21-year-old student at Bennington College. The Shards trailer suggests that this version of Ellis, played by Rigney, may be shopping around a version of the Less Than Zero manuscript in his final year of high school, with Bentley’s character Terry asking if this story will include sex and drugs. Ellis confirms it definitely will.

“Everyone loves a coming-of-age story,” Bentley’s character muses. 

This isn’t the only time that Ellis has inserted himself in his novels. His 2005 horror novel Lunar Park also offers a fictionalized version of his life as an adult author struggling to connect with his son. 

Have other works by Bret Easton Ellis been adapted? 

Though this is the first small-screen adaptation (a Less Than Zero TV series, which would have starred Austin Abrams, was previously in the works at Hulu but never aired), there have been film versions of several of his novels. That includes the 1987 film Less Than Zero, which starred Robert Downey Jr., Jami Gertz, James Spader and Andrew McCarthy. It diverged significantly from the original book. 

The 2002 film The Rules of Attraction, based on Ellis’s 1987 novel about students at the fictional Camden College, starred the late James van der Beek and Ian Somerhalder of The Vampire Diaries.

Perhaps most famous is Mary Harron’s 2000 adaptation of Ellis’ American Psycho, which starred Christian Bale as maybe-serial killer Patrick Bateman and reached cult status. A new version of the novel, to be directed by Challengers helmer Luca Guadagnino, is in the works. 

The Shards debuts Aug. 5 on FX.