Amazon Prime Video's new anthology series Solos is heading to the streaming platform very soon. Featuring an A-list cast, the seven-part series looks at what it means to be human, and how technology has changed the way we all connect with each other.
Here's everything you need to know about the series.
Solos release date
Solos launches globally on Amazon Prime Video on Friday May 21. All seven episodes will be available immediately.
Solos cast — who's in it?
The anthology series focuses on eight different characters over the course of its seven episodes, and boasts an impressively starry cast list.
Each episode is named after the character whose story it tells: "Tom" is played by Anthony Mackie, "Peg" is played by Helen Mirren, "Jenny" is played by Constance Wu, "Sasha" is played by Uzo Aduba, "Leah" is played by Anne Hathaway, "Nera" is played by Nicole Beharie, and the final episode "Stuart" stars Morgan Freeman as the title character and Dan Stevens as Otto.
Solos plot — what's it about?
Each of the seven episodes tells an individual, self-contained story — but if you pay close attention, you can spot links between the various characters. "Leah" is about a brilliant physicist who is obsessed with time travel, and who discovers two unlikely characters who are preventing a crucial breakthrough for her.
"Tom" is about a man who learns that his days are numbered, and responds by purchasing a controversial new product for his family. "Sasha" reveals how a global event drove everyone to lock themselves indoors, but 20 years later one woman is convinced that her smart home is trying to get her to leave.
"Jenny" is the tale of a woman in a waiting room, who gradually realises she can't quite remember what she was doing before she got there, and has to try and piece together her fractured memories. In "Nera", the titular character has undergone a pioneering new fertility treatment — but after her son is born, she realises that there is something very unusual about him.
"Stuart" sees a young man offering an older man with dementia the chance to regain his memory by using implants obtained on the black market. And in "Peg", a woman who has spent her whole life trying not to be "a bother" finally gets to go on a great adventure.
"Peg sees an advertisement saying, 'go on the adventure of a lifetime!'," says Helen Mirren, who plays her. "Her life has been avoiding adventure, and stepping back rather than going forward. She's coming to the end of her life, she's in her 70s, and she just has one of those 'let's go for it!' moments. The adventure is basically being launched into outer space — you don't really know to what, or where. All she is aware of is that there is no return..."
The entirety of Peg's episode takes place inside the space capsule that is carrying her off into the unknown, and Helen enjoyed being on the extremely detailed set during filming.
"I walked on set and I had the whole thing, roof and everything!" she recalls. "They could take windows out to get different shots and different angles, but I was absolutely enclosed in this small space, so that contributed to the feeling of reality that I had about it. When I looked out of the window, I had these great back-projections of the stars going slowly by — it was very believable being in there!"
Is there anything else we should know about Solos?
As well as the big-name stars appearing in each episode, you might recognise a few of the people behind the camera too. The "Peg" and "Stuart" episodes were helmed by Nowhere Boy and Fifty Shades Of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson, while the "Leah" episode was directed by actor, writer and director Zach Braff, best known as JD from medical comedy Scrubs.
