After making a splash with Carnival Row at San Diego Comic-Con, with stars Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne surprising fans during a special screening, Amazon is betting big on the fantasy drama. The studio announced an order for Carnival Row Season 2 during its presentation at the 2019 TCA Summer Press Tour. The renewal comes in advance of the series’ first season, which releases on 30 August.
The series comes from Amazon and Legendary Television. Marc Guggenheim (Arrow) serves as the showrunner and executive producer. Rene Echevarria, Jon Amiel, Travis Beacham, and Bloom also executive produce the series. It was adapted from a well-regarded feature script written by Beacham that appeared on the famed Hollywood Blacklist in 2005.
“I had totally given up on it,” said Beacham during Carnival Row’s TCA panel. “It was so big and it wasn’t based on anything. I got asked about it in meetings a lot. To be in Prague and be literally standing on Carnival Row and seeing people in costume, I still haven’t processed it.”
Carnival Row is a Victorian set fantasy about mythological creatures whose exotic homelands are invaded by man. Bloom plays a human detective named Rycroft who falls for a refugee faerie played by Delevinge. The series also stars David Gyasi (Interstellar), Karla Crome (Under the Dome), Indira Varma (Game of Thrones), and Tamzin Merchant (Salem).
The show’s not-so-subtle allegorical parallels to today’s immigration issues were a key topic during the TCA panel. The series’ comic-con activation sparked a minor controversy between Orlando Bloom and the mayor of San Diego.
“Travis wrote this 17 years ago but those themes are so relevant today,” Guggenheim said. “The plight of immigrants has got so much worse in the intervening 17 years. The immigrant story is a long and important thread in human narrative. We’re cognisant that we’re holding a mirror up to what’s going on in our world.”
Amazon released a teaser for season one during the panel. You can watch it below:
