HBO has finally revealed the first full-length trailer for Victorian superhero fantasy series The Nevers, and it’s just in time too, with the show set to premiere in just under three weeks on April 11.
The first season is split into two parts of six episodes each, although the second half doesn’t have a confirmed air date as of yet. As per the official synopsis, The Nevers focuses on a supernatural event that occurs in the London of 1896, imbuing numerous women with what are essentially superpowers.
A mysterious widow and a brilliant young inventor are forced to protect the women and provide them with shelter at all costs as nefarious forces appear on the scene to hunt down and kill anyone displaying any abilities that could be described as out of the ordinary. The footage in the trailer is hugely promising, setting out the broad strokes of the story and teasing the majority of the major players, without forgetting about the action sequences either. In a nutshell, it could be described as a combination of Penny Dreadful, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the graphic novel run, of course) and the X-Men with a little bit of Doctor Who thrown in for good measure, which sounds so bonkers that there’s every chance it’s going to be incredible.
The stacked ensemble includes Olivia Williams, James Norton, Tom Riley, Rochelle Neil, Eleanor Tomlinson, Amy Manson, Pip Torrens, Denis O'Hare, Zackary Momoh, Elizabeth Berrington, Kiran Sawar, Anna Devlin, Viola Prettejohn, Ella Smith, Nick Frost and Ben Chaplin, all of whom get some screentime in the trailer.
The Nevers was created by Joss Whedon, who quit as showrunner back in November of last year to be replaced by Philippa Goslett, but he’s still listed as an executive producer on the project, as well as scripting and directing the premiere. Nonetheless, a period-set superhero action-adventure series led by a mostly female cast fighting back against both the patriarchy and the bad guys is a unique selling point, and it stands a great chance at becoming the latest big-budget and effects-heavy genre show to capture the zeitgeist.
The premise of The Nevers is solid, to say the least, and you can check out the first trailer below. The first episode premieres April 11 on HBO.