'Night Sky': J.K. Simmons & Sissy Spacek hide a galactic secret in trailer for new Amazon sci-fi series

If you ever find a portal to another planet in your backyard, be sure to keep it under wraps for as long as possible. You never know what shady elements might be looking to exploit it for their own nefarious ends. It's the very predicament facing the characters of Night Sky — a new Amazon series debuting on Prime Video late next month.

J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and Sissy Spacek (Castle Rock) star as Frank and Irene York, a kindly couple in their 70s who have enjoyed the exclusive view of a deserted planet for decades. Their little yet carefully guarded galactic secret threatens to be revealed when a strange man enters their lives. As everything unravels, Frank and Irene learn that the intergalactic chamber is so much more than either of them could have ever imagined.

"I love all sci-fi, but it can be very self-serious and very ponderous sometimes," showrunner/executive producer Daniel C. Connolly (Colony) explained to Town & Country earlier this month. "To present to an audience something that's a little bit more approachable and lived in was our guiding star as we went about creating the show."

Watch the trailer now:

A co-production between Amazon Studios and Legendary Television, Night Sky was written by Holden Miller (The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore), who also serves as a co-executive producer. Jimmy Miller, Sam Hansen, and Philip Martin are executive producers.

“There's something fitting in this show about sort of experiencing something incredibly momentous, but from a place that feels like it's your own bedroom,” Miller said. “It feels a little bit like what we've all been going through for the past couple years — what the uncanny mixing of those two things feel like. At the same time, while [Night Sky] is incredibly emotionally serious, and it has a warmth and a humor and an escapist quality — reminding us all the possibility of adventure in life, and the profundities that we're constantly grappling with."

He concluded: “Obviously, most, if not all of us, do not have a portal to outer space in our backyard, but we all do have access to those same grand questions that these characters are grappling with. And it's the same ones that we all are.”

Night Sky lands on Prime Video Friday, May 20.

For more space-faring goodness, head over to Peacock for some Battlestar Galactica. SYFY is also heading for galactic parts unknown in The Ark, an upcoming new series from writer/executive producer Dean Devlin. Click here for more info on the project.