Michael Keaton Stars in First Trailer for Hulu's 'Dopesick' Drama About America's Opioid Epidemic

Hulu's upcoming drama, Dopesick, is tackling the topic of America's opioid epidemic.

The show's teaser trailer premiered Friday during the Television Critics Association's Summer Press Tour. In the first look, "the cure" to America's pain is a "new miracle drug" called OxyContin. Pharmaceutical salespeople, including Will Poulter's character Billy Cutler, are instructed to do "whatever it takes" to earn the "trust" of medical professionals so they will begin prescribing the drug.

Billy brings a bucket of KFC to visit Dr. Samuel Finnix, played by Michael Keaton. Sitting down together, Billy delivers his best pitch: "Less than one percent of people get addicted to OxyContin."

Samuel hits back, "That's not possible." Hesitations aside, the doctor is then seen prescribing his patient, Betsy Mallum (Kaitlyn Dever), the "miracle drug" and instructs her to only take two per day.

Later on, Samuel has another conversation with Billy about the negative aspects of OxyContin. "I think maybe that medicine might be just a tad more addictive than you said," Samuel opines as Billy replies, "That's not what we're hearing."

The side effects of the drug soon become an issue explored by authorities. At one point, Rosario Dawson's character Bridget Meyer — dressed in a DEA uniform — says "there might be a unique situation brewing."

The eight-episode miniseries, created by Danny Strong, is based on writer Beth Macy's 2018 book Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors and the Drug Company that Addicted America.

Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg, John Hoogenakker are also in the cast. The series' guest stars include Phillipa Soo and Jake McDorman.

During Hulu's TCA panel on Friday, Strong and the various stars reflected on bringing the story to life and discussed the impact it had on them.

Dawson, 42, noted that she's had "family members and people in the community who I've seen suffer and whose lives have generationally been impacted now from opioid addiction."

She added that she was struck by "the ease with which it was just brought into their lives and how destructive it was."

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"I think what Rosario said, the way she expressed it was perfect because that maybe was a shocker to me, the ease with which it became an epidemic, kind of knocked me out, you know, it seems almost too simple, that this happened this way," Keaton, 69, added.

He continued, "I'm reading and thinking, 'Well, are we really just too on the head?' and then you have to read Beth Macy's book and start to do any kind of research than you realize this is not exaggerated in the slightest, but that's the expression — that's the thing for me, the ease with which all this happened was sickening."

"To have the ability to tell these real people's tales – I think is going to bring humanity to a situation that unfortunately has seen a lot of inhumanity," Dawson later added of the series.

Dopesick premieres Oct. 13 on Hulu.