See Colin Firth and Toni Collette in 'The Staircase' series trailer

The limited series arrives this May

Remember when documentaries on Netflix used to be 13 episodes long? Thankfully, the dramatisation of the freak accident (?) will only be eight episodes - and here's the trailer.

'The Staircase' trailer has dropped, ahead of its release on HBO Max in the US, and Sky and NOW here in Europe and the UK this May.

BAFTA and Academy Award winner Colin Firth plays a dramatisation of Michael Peterson, who was put on trial during the early 2000s for the alleged murder of his wife, Kathleen, who will be portrayed by Toni Collette in the series.

The real-life case of the Petersons was a particularly bizarre one, which was documented in the Netflix docuseries of the same name. While Michael remains adamant that his wife slipped and fell down a back staircase in their house in North Carolina late one night, the police thought otherwise due to the severe lacerations found on the back of her head.

It seems this dramatisation will follow a similar route as the documentary, although it will delve deeper into the couple's backstory, as well as Michael's hidden second life. Still to this day, we don't fully know what really happened on the night in question when Kathleen fell to her death. What we can presume, however, is that perhaps an owl was not the cause of death - a theory that was brought up following the discovery of a feather.

Joining Colin Firth and Toni Collette in the eight-part series are Michael Stuhlbarg, Juliette Binoche, Dane DeHaan, Sophie Turner, Olivia DeJonge, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Parker Posey.

Here's 'The Staircase' trailer.

'The Staircase' will premiere on May 5 exclusively on Sky and streaming service NOW.