When we last saw Tom Hardy, he was attempting to kill Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant, a role for which he will be possibly winning an Oscar for in the coming week. It's exactly the kind of role that Hardy is great at: brooding, angry, rude, and prone to yelling. Those would all also be viable descriptors of what we see of Hardy in the first trailer for Taboo, FX's upcoming mini-series that Hardy is starring in for producers Ridley Scott and Steven Knight. Hardy is playing Delaney, a wild loner who returns to his home in England to wage war on the East India Company, who hold power over all in the society that he returns to. One might catch glimpses of Jonathan Pryce and House of Cards' Michael Kelly, as well as Game of Thrones' Oona Chaplin, but the big sights are more visceral, such as a pig's head on a stick or Hardy wandering in the woods with little more than a loincloth. Color me interested, to say the least.


Here's the trailer for Taboo:

Here's the official synopsis for Taboo, via the FX press release:


Set in 1814, Taboo follows James Keziah Delaney, a man who has been to the ends of the earth and comes back irrevocably changed. Believed to be long dead, he returns home to London from Africa to inherit what is left of his father's shipping empire and rebuild a life for himself. But his father's legacy is a poisoned chalice, and with enemies lurking in every dark corner, James must navigate increasingly complex territories to avoid his own death sentence. Encircled by conspiracy, murder, and betrayal, a dark family mystery unfolds in a combustible tale of love and treachery.

 

Taboo is based on an original story by Tom Hardy and his father Chips Hardy who is also the show’s consulting producer.

 

Ridley Scott’s Scott Free London and Tom Hardy’s Hardy Son & Baker are producing for FX and BBC One with Sonar Entertainment distributing worldwide outside the UK. Executive producers are Ridley Scott and Kate Crowe for Scott Free, Tom Hardy and Dean Baker for Hardy Son & Baker, and Steven Knight, with Timothy Bricknell producing. Taboo is directed by Kristoffer Nyholm and reunites Hardy and Knight for their third collaboration following Locke and Peaky Blinders.

 

In addition to his work in The Revenant, Tom Hardy most recently played the lead role in the Oscar-nominated Mad Max: Fury Road.  Ridley Scott’s The Martian is currently nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Motion Picture of the Year.


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Image via 20th Century Fox
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Image via 20th Century Fox