Benedict Cumberbatch Stars as a Father in Search of His Missing Son Netflix’s ‘Eric’

Benedict Cumberbatch plays a father who will go to extreme lengths to bring his son home in Netflix’s upcoming limited series Eric.

Set in 1980s New York, Eric follows the story of Cumberbatch’s Vincent and Gaby Hoffmann’s Cassie searching for their missing son, Edgar (Ivan Morris Howe). To Cassie’s dismay, Vincent turns to his work as a children’s television puppeteer to try to find his missing son.

As police continue to pursue their search and rescue, Vincent takes one of his son’s drawings of Eric, a possible monster puppet for Vincent’s series, Good Day Sunshine, and decides to bring the monster to life. He becomes fixated on taking Eric from the page to the screen as a way to entice his son to return home.

In a moment of desperation and angst, Vincent tells Cassie, “If we can get [Eric] on the show, then Edgar will see him and know how much we want him to come home.”

“You’re going crazy,” Cassie replies.

As he continues to “struggle to cope with the loss of his son,” Vincent becomes “increasingly distressed and volatile,” per the series’ logline. “As Vincent’s progressively destructive behavior alienates his family, his work colleagues, and the detectives trying to help him, it’s Eric, a delusion of necessity, who becomes his only ally in the pursuit to bring his son home.”

Alongside Cumberbatch, Hoffmann, 42, and Howe, the series stars McKinley Belcher III, Dan Fogler and Clarke Peters. Abi Morgan, also known for her work on Chernobyl and The Iron Lady, created, wrote and executive produced the series.

In addition to Morgan, the series is executive produced by Cumberbatch, Jane Featherstone, Lucy Dyke and director Lucy Forbes. Holly Pullinger produced.

At the Next on Netflix showcase in London in March, Cumberbatch shared how the six-part series is rooted in real-world issues, per The Hollywood Reporter. 

“Looking at parenthood, looking at marriage, looking at mental health, looking at the AIDS pandemic, but also the ongoing crises of homophobia, of racism in institutions,” the Marvel star explained. “There’s a lot going on, and yet it does speak to our world. It’s not cramming stuff in that we’re not, sadly, all too familiar with.”

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Eric debuts on Netflix on May 30.