Colin Firth is a father with secrets in The Staircase trailer

A family can only withstand so much.

HBO Max has released the trailer for its upcoming limited series The Staircase, which stars Colin Firth and Toni Collette as Michael and Kathleen Peterson. Based on the real-life case, which spawned a hugely popular docuseries of the same name, The Staircase tells the story of how Michael, a father and novelist, was accused of murdering his wife after she was found dead at the bottom of a set of stairs in their North Carolina home.

As the new trailer below shows, the events of that night slowly begin to tear the Peterson family apart, as Michael is put on trial and he and Kathleen's kids are forced to choose sides. Alongside Firth and Colette, the limited series stars Michael Stuhlbarg, Juliette Binoche, Dane DeHaan, Olivia DeJonge, Rosemarie DeWitt, Tim Guinee, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sophie Turner, Vincent Vermignon, Odessa Young, and Parker Posey.

In real life, Michael was convicted of killing Kathleen in 2003, but in 2017, he was freed after submitting an Alford plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter. The eight-episode series will dig into his entire story, with three episodes debuting on May 5, followed by one new episode a week through June 9.

The Staircase is written and executive-produced by showrunners Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn. Watch the trailer in full above.

Check out our daily must-see picks — plus news, celeb interviews, trivia, and more — on EW's What to Watch podcast.

Related content:

• Colin Firth becomes a murderer in first look at HBO Max's The Staircase
• Colin Firth to star in adaptation of The Staircase true-crime docuseries
• TV tip: Watch The Staircase, the great Michael Peterson true-crime documentary, tonight