Nicole Kidman watches her world unravel in new trailer for HBO limited series The Undoing

Nicole Kidman returns as muse for Big Little Lies screenwriter Dave E Kelley in his latest taut and suspenseful limited series for HBO, The Undoing.

And the premium cable network released the second teaser trailer on Sunday, which gave fans a more detailed look at the complex, heart-pounding storytelling Kelley has in store.

Kidman stars alongside Hugh Grant, Edgar Ramirez, Noah Jupe and Donald Sutherland in the series adapted from the bestselling Jean Hanff Korelitz novel You Should Have Known.  

Nicole plays the role of successful behavioral therapist, Grace Faser, who wakes up one morning to find out that a terrible murder has taken place in her home.

The highly anticipated second teaser opens on the actress, standing before a frosted window, as she takes in the breathtaking New York City skyline.

With her back to the audience and her unmistakable crimped auburn tresses in clear view, the camera dramatically dollies out revealing the actress’ eerie solo occupancy in a darkened room.

In voice over, she says stoically, ‘At some point I’m going to have to talk about it…the “why” of it all.’ 

The next scene flashes to Kidman’s fictional husband, played by Hugh Grant, in the driver’s seat of a vehicle as he drops off the couple’s son, played by Noah Jupe, at his elite New York City private school.

‘There are moments when we can just lose ourselves, but it doesn’t undo who we are in our entirety,’ lectures Grant as he walks beside Jupe. 

In the following scene, Kidman can be seen curled up by a window, as her head falls hopelessly into her lap. She proclaims wearily in voice over, ‘I’ll fix this.’ 

In heart pounding montage, the audience endures a startling evolution in Kidman’s character’s life. From tender cheek kisses from Grant to police swarming in on her upscale Fifth Avenue home.

Cut to Kidman sitting on the couch in her living room watching the nightly news report on her television.  

‘A gruesome discovery of a mother bludgeoned to death…,’ recites the news anchor, as the light from the television illuminates Nicole’s horror stricken face. 

Tension is built further as back-to-back lines of dialogue are hurled at the audience.

‘Nobody seems to know…anything,’ exclaims a frustrated confidant speaking to Kidman over a landline telephone.

‘What are the police making of it?’ asks Grant as him and his tortured wife walk aimlessly along the breezy Hudson River.

Cut to the couple’s son’s bedroom, where Kidman appears to be bidding Jupe a goodnight. 

‘Mom, you’re acting strange…’ says Jupe, as he lays up in his bed.

Wide eyed and speechless, Kidman is approached outside her luxury complex by two NYPD detectives, one of whom is played by Edgar Ramirez (who played Gianni Versace in American Crime Story). 

Police file in and out of Kidman’s home, collecting evidence as she and her confused family look on helplessly.  

Cut to an interrogation room.

‘We are investigating a crime,’ informs Ramirez. ‘So, if you know something tell us what it is.’

Shots of Kidman back home trying to piece things together, coupled with the sound of deep breathing, point to the fact that her world is totally upended. 

Kidman screams in a shot where she’s silhouetted against a view of the city. 

In the same interrogation, an agitated Kidman utters sternly, ‘you either read me my rights right now…or tell me I’m free to go.’  

The trailer build even more tension, when Grant openly questions his wife about where she was the night of the mysterious murder.

He replies: ‘This is such a coincidence isn’t it?  

Mysterious images show that whatever happened is a lot more complicated than it at first appeared: a stormy night, a stranger in a park, a train speeding under an underpass. 

Her father, played by veteran actor Donald Sutherland, tells Kidman that she is ‘going to believe things’ she ‘should not’ in the course of discovering the truth.

‘Whatever you’ve heard, it’s worse than you think.’ 

The second teaser concludes on a final montage that includes droplets of blood, close ups on the murder victim, and a plethora of panicked facial expressions. 

The Undoing is set premiere in May on HBO.