HBO has finally unveiled its first look at its upcoming Victorian-era fantasy series, The Nevers, along with an idea of when we’ll finally get to see it: April 2021.
Warner Bros. first announced the series back in 2018. Created by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly‘s Joss Whedon, it was described as a series about “a gang of Victorian women who find themselves with unusual abilities, relentless enemies and a mission that might change the world.” Buffy, but in the olden days.
The trailer seems to bear that out: three years before the series begins, women begin to get some strange powers, allowing them to control fire or ice, walk on water, or have special reflexes. They’re known as the Touched, and they’ve been persecuted by the cops and others in society. Two women, Amalia True (played by Laura Donnelly) and Penance Adair (Ann Skelly) set up a home for women who are afflicted with the powers, and will fight to keep them safe.
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It looks as though the series will have plenty of action and some fantastical inventions along with the witty dialogue that’s a trademark for Whedon’s creations.
Whedon, however, won’t be part of the series. Late last year, he stepped down from the show citing “the physical challenges” of creating a series—a move that also coincided with allegations and an investigation of misconduct on the set of Justice League. He’s since been replaced by Philippa Goslett, who’s written projects like Mary Magdalene and How to Talk to Girls at Parties.
The teaser also reveals when we’ll get to see The Nevers: April 2021, just a couple of months from now. The first series will be six episodes long, and joins a growing catalog from Warner Bros. for streaming its streaming service HBO Max, along with other genre shows like Lovecraft Country and His Dark Materials.
Whedon will be part of the series: he wrote or co-wrote most of Season 1 and directed multiple episodes (they completed shooting a while ago, before he stepped down). So his fingerprints will be all over the show.
He certainly won’t be part of any potential second season. His departure was linked to the Justice League fiasco and the complaints from Ray Fisher, but given that WB has stood by everyone else involved in the mess and has thrown Fisher under the bus, I’m not sure that’s the case. Whedon was widely reported to be in talks with Feige and Disney about returning to their fold as early as a year ago, way before the Fisher stuff emerged, so it might be he always envisaged kicking off The Nevers and then bailing, leaving some of his trusted team-members in charge (Espenson and Petrie, who’ve been on Team Whedon since the Buffy days, are still working on the show).
We’ll see in the coming months what his next project is or if he’s just going to lie low for a few years.
There has got to be a more imaginative way for someone to fall from a great height and land unscathed, or to prepare to administer a beatdown besides cracking their neck. Doesn’t there?
* that should be “by” cracking their neck. Two different cliches being beaten next to a dead horse here.
I understand the Buffy connection, given Whedon’s involvement, but having a subset of people gifted with powers, persecuted by society, and gathered together in a special home suggests Victorian X-men (or X-women, in this case), to me. Perhaps not terribly surprising, given Whedon’s noted Claremontian influences.
Just what we need, another series with people having superpowers. How original.
Okay, so people have superpowers? So automatically to me, that means we’re not in our… Let’s say… timeline? If the show isn’t set in our timeline, why can’t we get better representation? They’ve got the same damn token person of color as Carnival Row, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell(not as annoying to me tbh but it fits I think), Penny Dreadful, and probably about 70,000 others that aren’t popping into my head. Sighhhh.
Would have loved to see a Bridgerton with powers series! And with some of us older ladies also. Cor Blimey.
@2 = True story. A jilted lady in Bristol (England) threw herself off the suspension bridge and was saved by her crinoline, which acted as a parachute.
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/08/19/in-1885-a-victorian-barmaid-attempted-a-suicide-and-survived-thanks-to-her-crinoline-skirt/
@11, It also helped that she landed in the thick mud of the river bank. Coincidentally I was talking about that story with a friend of mine just yesterday (we live in Bristol). Alas, it’s still a suicide hotspot.
Sarcasm powers…ACTIVATE!
It almost has all the makings of a DC superhero movie. The quick cuts successfully relay that the action will be non-followable. But, they are literally overshadowed by the “dark and brooding” filter that makes anything not in the center of the screen virtually unseeable. Also, I hope they can do something about the sound volume. The music was inconsistent and occasionally interrupted with some person speaking unintelligibly.
Seriously though, why do film and TV dive deeper and deeper into the unwatchable direction? Music and visuals should enhance the story, not be the story. I was excited to see preview, but now, I am already disappointed.
@6: They have Rochelle Neil, Zackary Momoh, Kiran Sonia Sawar, so that’s two of the main cast and one of the recurring. But the main cast is huge (thirteen regular roles) so that’s not much better.
That does suggest they are leaning more into the idea of “perceived historical accuracy” despite the fantasy element. And actual history (during the late Victorian era there was enough immigration from the rest of the empire so that people of colour were not an uncommon sight in London, something that even recent era sitcom Year of the Rabbit got right).