As US cable channel Showtime took to the stage at the Television Critics Association winter press tour to talk up its wares, the company premiered a trailer for the second season of supernatural drama series Penny Dreadful online. Take a look at the fresh footage below.
The new season will see Vanessa (Eva Green) and Ethan (Josh Hartnett) forming a deeper bond as the group, including Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton), Dr. Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway), and Sembene (Danny Sapani), unite to banish the evil forces that threaten to destroy them. Meanwhile, Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney), the Creature (Rory Kinnear) and Brona (Billie Piper) are all waging battles of their own.
And the show has recruited several new guest stars to stretch the ensemble: Patti LuPone will be as a mysterious character of great importance in Vanessa’s past. Helen McCrory returns as Evelyn Poole (AKA Madame Kali), the seductive spiritualist who will pose a unique threat to our heroes this season, along with Simon Russell Beale, who is back as eccentric Egyptologist Ferdinand Lyle. Additional guest stars include Douglas Hodge as a Scotland Yard investigator, Sarah Greene as Poole’s powerful daughter, Hecate, and Johnny Beauchamp as a man with a singular past.
“This season Vanessa and Ethan face new challenges,” says series producer John Logan in a press release, “and old enemies, and turn to each other for solace. Their intimacy grows as they are forced to confront their demons together.” The footage is typically stylish and gruesome, which is what you’d expect from this show. Penny Dreadful returns to US screens on April 26. Expect it to arrive over here on Sky Atlantic around the same time.