Get a First Look at Joshua Jackson, Christian Slater in Dr. Death — Based on a Shocking True Story
Scott McDermott/Peacock
Peacock's Dr. Death series is almost here — and PEOPLE has the exclusive first look at the based-on-a-true-story drama.
In the first images from the upcoming show, based on Wondery's hit podcast of the same name, Joshua Jackson plays Dr. Christopher Duntsch, a.k.a Dr. Death.
Duntsch, a neurosurgeon, was a rising star in the Dallas medical community — until others in the hospital began noticing that patients coming in for routine spinal surgeries under his care were leaving permanently maimed or dead.
Neurosurgeon Robert Henderson, played by Alec Baldwin, is one of the people who sets out on the difficult task of stopping Duntsch. "Robert believes wholeheartedly both in the system in which he rose through the ranks and that anything worth doing shouldn't be rushed. It should be gotten right," his character description reads.
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Barbara Nitke/Peacock
Scott McDermott/Peacock
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Christian Slater's Randall Kirby, a vascular surgeon, joins Henderson in his quest to get to the bottom of Duntsch's bad outcomes, but while Henderson is "quiet, deliberative and methodical," Kirby is "brash, impulsive and more than willing to burn that system to the ground in the name of justice."
In Kirby's mind, "There's a time and a place for deliberation and there's a time and a place to just get things done."
Barbara Nitke/Peacock
Scott McDermott/Peacock
Barbara Nitke/Peacock
In addition to the men playing the three doctors, the Dr. Death cast also includes Grace Gummer, AnnaSophia Robb and Hubert Point-Du Jour.
Robb plays Michelle Shughart, a Dallas prosecutor who teams up with Henderson and Kirby to take down Duntsch, while Gummer stars as Kim Morgan, a physician's assistant who's drawn to Duntsch, professionally and personally, by his "apparent talent and ambition."
Finally, Point-Du Jour has taken on the role of Josh Baker, the operating room nurse who first flags Duntsch's disastrous surgical misadventures to the attention of doctors Henderson and Kirby.
The series "explores the twisted mind of Dr. Duntsch and the failures of the system designed to protect the most defenseless among us."
Dr. Death will premiere on NBCU's streaming service, Peacock, this year, though the release date has not yet been announced.
