Ryan Murphy told Variety at the New York premiere of FX's The Shards that he insisted the series be shot in Los Angeles, even though it could have been filmed more cheaply in Canada. The adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's thriller novel comes as Los Angeles production volume dropped 3.1% in the second quarter of 2026, despite recent efforts from state and city officials to increase tax incentives designed to keep filming local.

The Shards follows a protagonist named Bret who begins to imagine a link between a charismatic new student called Robert and a serial killer known as the Trawler, who has been abducting people in the area. The New Yorker describes the adaptation as Ellis's story filtered through Murphy's sensibility, which has long meant lush, fast-moving drama built around ensemble casts.

Casting that ensemble took serious effort. Murphy said close to 500 people auditioned over many months for the parts. Homer Gere — who had a breakout role in Euphoria — stars in the series. Murphy is friends with Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, Variety reports, a connection that sits behind the casting through a shared network of collaborators rather than any formal arrangement.

Murphy also said he was "very conscious" about the way sex is portrayed in The Shards. That remark lands against a specific backdrop: a UCLA study cited in the same Variety piece found that nearly half of Gen Z does not want sexual content in film and TV. Murphy did not say the study shaped his approach, but the two facts sit side by side in a landscape where streaming-era audiences and the creators writing for them are both recalibrating what shows up on screen.

The production decision to stay in Los Angeles is the part that carries the most weight beyond the show itself. A 3.1% quarterly decline in LA filming volume means fewer crews working, fewer writers' rooms renting space, fewer local vendors getting orders. When a producer of Murphy's standing chooses the more expensive option and says so publicly at a premiere, it becomes a data point in an ongoing policy fight — one where tax incentives are meant to reverse the slide but, at least for the most recent measured quarter, have not yet done so.

The Shards is an FX series. No air date has been confirmed in the sources reviewed.