It’s hard not to look at The Nevers with a skeptical eye, given the show’s messy backstory and the continuing accusations against creator Joss Whedon. Whedon left the series in November 2020, citing the challenges of making “such a huge show during a global pandemic,” and new showrunner Philippa Goslett came on board early this year. But this first season is still largely Whedon’s; he wrote multiple episodes, and IMDb has him credited as the director for most of the season as well.
Now, we have the first full trailer for the show, a fuller glimpse at what to expect when it premieres on HBO Max on April 11th. Largely dark and gloomy as all prestige TV apparently has to be in a post-Game of Thrones world (and in GoT‘s Sunday night slot, no less), The Nevers seems like a logical progression for Whedon: part Buffy, part X-Men, maybe a dollop of Doctor Who and all with the found-family streak that runs through most of Whedon’s work. And, of course, tough waifs.
Here’s the official summary:
Victorian London is rocked to its foundations by a supernatural event that gives certain people—mostly women—abnormal abilities, from the wondrous to the disturbing. But no matter their particular “turns,” all who belong to this new underclass are in grave danger. It falls to mysterious, quick-fisted widow Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) and brilliant young inventor Penance Adair (Ann Skelly) to protect and shelter these gifted “orphans.” To do so, they will have to face the brutal forces determined to annihilate their kind.
They’re even going to make their own Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters!
None of the action is particularly outstanding, but there is something appealingly ominous in the way the trailer builds, deftly introducing the Touched; the different ways people respond to their existence; the different ways the Touched themselves choose to act; and, in the end, a mysterious existential threat. Will it be too on-the-nose about men trying to control powerful women? Entirely possible. We’ll find out in just a few weeks when the show debuts on HBO on April 11th.
Buy the Book
A Master of Djinn
