Ryan Murphy Goes Inside ‘The Shards’: How Bret Easton Ellis’ Dark Memoir of Love and Murder Was Made for TV: “We Saw 500 Actors for These Parts” (Exclusive)

The Shards seems like the perfect Ryan Murphy show: A coming-of-age story set in early 1980s Los Angeles where beautiful, affluent teens are being hunted by a serial killer. But this story is personal.

Murphy, now a father of three, says he first read Bret Easton Ellis‘ 2023 autofiction horror novel of the same name, of which the FX show is based, right when it came out. HBO was first to develop the book, but that adaptation fell through. That’s when Murphy swooped in.

“I always wanted to do something adapting Bret’s work,” the prolific creator behind American Horror Story, Love Story, Glee and many more series tells The Hollywood Reporter.

For Murphy, 1981 was a seminal year. Like the characters in his TV adaptation, it was a year of firsts. Every reference in the book felt familiar, from the clothes to the music to the code-switching from the protagonist based on Ellis. “I came from that place of telling Bret: ‘I get it. I lived it.’ I guess it worked, because he let me have the rights,” Murphy recalls with a laugh.

The Shards, starring a knockout cast of Igby Rigney (as Ellis), Hollywood offspring Kaia Gerber and Homer Gere, along with Evan Rachel Wood and Wes Bentley, premiered Wednesday night with its first two of nine episodes. Below, Murphy talks to THR about how his passion won over Ellis as he goes inside the casting process — “We saw 500 actors for these parts” — of an “emotional” production, talks about how they approached the eroticism in the adaptation, and reveals that he and Ellis have been plotting a three-season series from the start: “It certainly will launch discussions.”

What was your familiarity with Bret Easton Ellis and his 2023 autofiction/horror novel, The Shards, before you got involved in adapting it for TV?

I read all of Bret’s books the moment they come out. I always have, ever since his first book. So I read the book and loved it and was a fan. And when it became available, I kind of swooped in and begged and pleaded and I was thrilled that I could get it. I was thrilled that I was at the time able to, after many, many years.

My pitch was that I’m going to get it made. And I’m going to make it something that I think that you would like. He and I are similar age. It was so long ago now, but when I talked to him, all you can do in those situations is come from a place of passion.

I have been asked for many, many years, “Why don’t you do something about your life? Why don’t you do something about your childhood?” I never really wanted to, or figured out what that was. But my pitch to him was that 1981, the year the book is set, was the most important year of my life in many ways. That was the year I turned 16. That was my first date. My first driving lesson. I lost my virginity. On and on and on. I really understood those kids, and particularly, the Brett character.

I understood what it was like to pretend you’re one thing by day and be a different thing by night, talking about my gay life. I really understood that character, who is autofiction but kind of based on Bret, who code-switched between identities. I knew what the clothes looked like; I wore them. I knew what the music sounded like. All of the references in the book, I knew what they were.

The Shards was first in development at HBO, but that version came apart over creative differences, THR reported at the time. Do you know what happened with the project there and why it came available?

I don’t, and I never asked. I’ve worked at HBO. I have a high regard for HBO; for Casey [Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max] and the group. Sometimes a network only has so many slots. Who knows.

But I did have a run-in with Casey at the Golden Globes right after it was announced that I was doing it. And he was so cool. He was like, “I’m so thrilled that you are doing this and that you get to tell this story. We love Bret and we love you.” It was just very kind. It felt like everybody was rooting for each other.

So I have no idea, and Bret never talked about it other than that he had his own experience with it. I was trying to just come from a place of passion to get the rights, so it wasn’t really brought up.

It was February 2025 when you came in; does that sound right?

That may have been when the rights closed. Bret and I had met and got it nailed down a little earlier than that.

Brad Simpson recently told THR at The Shards premiere that, because of what happened at HBO, Bret wanted a more hands-off approach with this adaptation. Did he take convincing, or did you land on something that worked for you both, in terms of his involvement?

Bret was really cool. I just spoke about it and he was like, “Okay, go with God.” I think Bret has had an amazing career, and he has been involved or not involved with the adaptations of his work. Authors are like that. So that’s all that our conversation was: “Do your thing.”

The other thing that Bret said that I loved was that, in success, “I think that this story could be multiple seasons.” The book is very dense. People will love these characters. So we had always talked, even in the beginning, briefly, that, in success, this is a three- or four-year series where it takes place over the course of one school year. And I loved that.

Bret co-wrote these first two episodes with you. He then took a “godfather-y hands-off approach,” and your actors said you were a conduit to Bret for any questions. What was your working relationship with Bret after the first two?

My working relationship with him was great. He made it very clear: “I’m here if you have any questions.” I had a great template with the book. It’s not like I didn’t have anything from him to go off of. Everyone in the cast had the book, so if we had a question, we flipped to the page in the book. Or we asked our writers assistants, “Can you review this scene?” Many of the scenes, the dialogue is verbatim from the book, so that was incredibly helpful.

Also, when you’re creating a show that hopefully goes three or four years, you have to add new characters that are in the tone of the book, and we added a couple of those.

All I know is that he was wonderful and always available, particularly with our producers who were on the ground, Brad [Simpson] and Nina [Jacobson]. We got to show Bret the first two episodes when they were complete with his team. From what I hear, he really, really loved them. Bret has his own way of talking about his work and his adaptations in the media, which I’ve always respected. So it was kind of a: “I’m here if you need me, but also, do your thing.”

This story has all the makings of a Ryan Murphy show: Beautiful people hunted by a serial killer in ‘80s L.A. The show is also a metaphor for AIDS. Can you talk about that?

Well, yeah. Bret and I never spoke about that. We never talked about the identity of the killer. Obviously, the killer is a person; that’s very clear. But the subtext of that year, for me, was ingrained in the writing because, like I told you, I had my first sexual experience in February of 1981, and then three or four months later was the New York Times story about how there’s a new, mysterious disease killing gay men. My adolescence, as it was for millions of people, was always that intimacy was intertwined with death and trauma.

So that idea that everybody is being hunted and taken out at the prime of their lives by this mysterious killer, I was like, “Well, that’s very interesting to explore.” And I spoke to the cast about that. All of that trauma and yearning and longing and pain and wanting to be accepted — all that stuff — was baked in, particularly in the pilot.

I just felt it very deeply. Obviously, throughout my entire career I’ve done a lot of pieces about the AIDS epidemic. It was my experience. The Shards is a whodunnit. But I really understood, “Wait, why are people I love dying?” Because I lost so many friends in a personal way.

How would you compare The Shards to your other recent shows? There is a ton of buzz, but hearing how personal it is for you, do you feel extra passion for this one?