Though it will initially be limited to broadcast on the PlayStation Network, the team behind the adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming graphic novel Powers took the chance to launch the show at this past weekend’s New York Comic-Con. Included in their presentation was a trailer for the series, which features some R-rated dialogue.
Powers focuses on detectives Christian Walker (Sharlto Copley) and Deena Pilgrim (Susan Heyward) who walk a very particular beat: they investigate crimes committed by or affecting people with special abilities, superheroes and supervillains and the like. They’re an odd team, since Walker has no real police training but used to be super-powered, and Pilgrim is new to dealing with powered types but is an experienced cop.
Among those on the other side of the law are Wolfe (Eddie Izzard), a notorious villain with high-level abilities imprisoned in a facility called the Shaft and forced to undergo surgeries to keep his power in check. Oleysa Rulin is Calista, a teenage runaway “Power” who keeps her wits about her, while Noah Taylor is playing Johnny Royale, a criminal mastermind who owns an underground club and who can teleport with ease.
The trailer demonstrates that the show aims to keep things more on a street, both a necessity given the budget and because Bendis and show-runner Charlie Huston wanting to maintain the feel of the source.
“What you’re gonna see is very similar to how we handled it in the comic and that is, we stay on the ground. We don’t go up in the sky,” Bendis said at the presentation. “It’s Deena’s point-of-view and Walker being stuck down here with us and can’t get back up there, that’s the point-of-view of the show. And to do anything else would be literally just like everything else.”
With shooting happening right now, the series should hit the PlayStation Network next year.