Things We Saw Today: The New Carnival Row Trailer Teases the Central Mystery of the Series

Many years ago, I was working as a beleaguered Hollywood assistant. My job entailed, among many things, reading my way through a pile of scripts. The only one I remembered with any clarity was a feature film titled The Killing on Carnival Row by Travis Beacham. I immediately fell in love with the rich fantasy world, the well-drawn characters, and the marriage of fantasy and noir. In the years since, I’ve followed the project through several false starts, unused options, and casting attachments.

Now, at long last, Carnival Row is here, as a new Amazon Prime series starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne. Amazon dropped two trailers for the series at SDCC that set up their backgrounds: human detective Rycroft Philostrate (Bloom) and his estranged love, a faerie refugee named Vignette Stonemoss (Delevingne).

Both characters inhabit a dismal Victorian-style city called The Burgue, where fae and other mythical creatures are treated like second class citizens (hello immigration metaphor). Vignette and Rycroft cross paths as Rycroft investigates a serial killer and struggles to keep the peace in an increasingly violent city. The eight episode series doesn’t premiere until August 30th, but Amazon has already ordered a second season.

We’ll keep you posted on all the upcoming Carnival Row news. As a fan of the original script, I am beyond excited to see how the series brings Beacham’s world to life.

(via The Wrap, image: Amazon Prime)

• Kaley Cuoco and Lake Bell discuss the progressive, feminist POV of DC Universe’s Harley Quinn animated series. (via CBR)
• See the Apollo 11 moon crew immortalized in butter sculpture at the Ohio State Fair. (via Space.com)
• Here’s a teaser for season three of Hulu’s Runaways, which premieres in December. (via io9)
• Florence Pugh discusses her upcoming role in Marvel’s Black Widow solo film. (via Collider)
• Here’s the VFX reel for season 8 of Game of Thrones, which is pretty damn impressive. (via /Film)
• The trailer for the musical series finale of Amazon’s Transparent is here and there’s a lot going on.

What are you up to this weekend, Mary Suevians?

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—