By Ethan Anderton/June 3, 2019 11:30 am EST
Carnival Row Teaser
Here’s how Deadline describes the plot of the show and who Orlando Bloom and Care Delevingne are playing in the eight-part series:
That certainly sounds compelling enough. There has always been something appealing about setting fantasy and sci-fi stories in some kind of alternate Victorian era, and this series could hit that sweet spot just right. However, the series does feel incredibly close to the world and story from the Fables comics from the DC Comics imprint Vertigo. Of course, imitation has always been a trend in television, so that’s not all that surprising.
The eight-part series is set in a Victorian fantasy world mythological immigrant creatures whose exotic homelands were invaded by the empires of man. The Pirates of the Caribbean star Bloom plays human detective, Rycroft Philostrate, while Suicide Squad star Delevingne stars as a refugee faerie named Vignette Stonemoss. They rekindle a dangerous affair despite an increasingly intolerant society and Vignette harbors a secret that endangers Philo’s world during his most important case yet: a string of gruesome murders threatening the uneasy peace of the Row.
Joining Bloom and Delevingne will be David Gyasi (Interstellar) as Agreus, a mysteriously wealthy faun who moves into an affluent human neighborhood in defiance of the social order; Karla Crome (Under the Dome) as Tourmaline, a quick-witted faerie poet driven from her war-torn homeland; Indira Varma (Game of Thrones) as Piety Breakspear, the regal and cunning matriarch of the powerful family that rules the city of The Burgue; and Tamzin Merchant (Salem) as Imogen Spurnrose, a young woman who sees in Agreus an opportunity to turn her aristocratic family’s fading fortunes around.
