Creators of Carnival Row tease more creatures and politics in season 2

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Carnival Row The creator Travis Beacham never thought he would ever see his story on screen. The fantastic drama of Amazon Studios began as a specification scenario that he began writing at the university, he said. The edge. "And it was really just for an audience of one. I thought everything I put on was incredibly cool, but I never imagined it would resonate with anyone else. I think it's really the story of this project, it's just being constantly surprised by the fact that I'm not the only person who likes that kind of thing. "

After years of development, Beacham's original blacklisted storyline (originally titled A massacre on Carnival Row) has become a series, with an initial season of eight episodes already available on Amazon and a renewal for season 2. The tale, which takes place in the Burge – a city reminiscent of Victorian London – is centered on humans and fae whose difficult coexistence leads to violence, political intrigue and romance.

Police Inspector Philo (Orlando Bloom) and Vignette Rebel Faerie (Cara Delevingne) are at the center of the story. Their starry love is one of many narratives highlighting a racial division and division, which serve as a clear allegory for modern social dynamics. Carnival Row brings many elements to create something original, but as Beacham and executive producer Marc Guggenheim explain, they took care to base the story as much as possible – even relying on snapshots from time to time, to make sure the audience feels comfortable with their new world.

This interview has been slightly modified for clarity and brevity.

What is the origin of Carnival Row as a title?

Travis Beacham: The best way to talk about it would be in relation to the neighborhood itself. Just in writing, [the show] went through a lot of different names. I do not really remember how we landed Carnival Rowbut what I understood was the idea that at one point this neighborhood was the epicenter of human fascination with those people on the other side of the ocean and that there was real fairs and carnivals. I just liked the mashup for these ideas.

This shows the development of this project.

TB: I really have trouble separating the world's history from the actual story of this idea. Everything begins to blend in my mind.

Regarding the development of the show, did you have strict rules regarding technological or fantastic elements?

TB: In terms of technology, we are trying to build on what was possible in the Victorian era. They do not have a phone or that kind of thing, but maybe they can have elevators. And if it falls in this historical window, we consider it a fair game. I mean, it's an invented world. We allow ourselves to move in one way or another, but if that was not possible in the Victorian era, we will not do it in our show.

When it comes to magic, one of the things I like in fantasy stories is a sense of restraint, so it's not cluttered with magic. For example, our faerie characters are flying because they have wings. We try to root it in a physicality. So when you have magic, it seems rare, and it looks like an intrusion into the physical world, rather than something banal.

Marc Guggenheim: I would even say that, to the extent that the show plunges into magic, it is more of a mysticism than a magic typical of what we have seen. Again, this is what helps to keep the course on the land and make it interesting When it appears in the show, it's a special event.

TB: In a normal fantasy show, where you brandish a lot of chopsticks, the magic usually becomes quite commonplace and banal. But in our show, he always has this strangeness.

MG: Even a character reading the bowels is drawn from the actual story.

TB: The name of this character [played by Alice Krige] is the Haruspex, which is actually a Latin term. This means that it is someone who reads the entrails of birds.

MG: It's a niche job.

TB: Very niche.

The fact that it is an original world, not based on a book or a movie, is a rarity nowadays.

TB: Oh yes. It is very unusual. So I think it's always useful to rely on narrative pressure points – anchors of reality. You have the scene where Philo's chief says "give me your badge". It's in this kind of cliché that the audience is reassured: "Yes, there are a lot of strange things happening in this world, but I can follow this story. . This will rely on some archetypes. I think that the inclusion of this type of familiarity facilitates novelty.

It's like fairytale creatures. Everyone has in mind that faunas are lush forest creatures or that fairies are deceptive transformers. So what we have done in this world is to turn all these ideas of archetypal fairy tales into racist stereotypes. We do not fight the public. We look at all the stories they have heard. We just recontextualize them.

This is an important factor in the context of the scenario of Agreus and Imogen. [Tamzin Merchant plays Imogen Spurnrose, an upper-class young woman who becomes fascinated by Agreus (David Gyasi), a wealthy faun attempting to integrate himself into Burge high society.] In addressing this story in particular, did you think, "What if Jane Austen was in the room of our writers?"

TB: [[[[Laughs]It would have been great to have Jane, but she was unavailable for various reasons. But one of the things we like about this show is that it takes you to all these different places. It's several different shows, one of which is this Victorian novel. This has never really been part of the original script I wrote and which was very focused on Philo and Vignette. But to widen the story, we had to think about the whole world and the other characters we would meet. It was probably the most fun novelty to add, because it was a corner of the world that I had never had to explore in this version.

As far as casting is concerned, what was your approach as a blind race?

TB: Obviously, we want a very diverse distribution, so we tried to be blind about it. But in the case of Agreus, given the nature of its dilemma – a minority living in a higher class neighborhood – we did not want to put this problem in the mouth of a white man, to put it bluntly. We really wanted to be diverse with this role.

MG: David [Gyasi] it's unbelievable. It is completely transformed.

TB: I did a pilot project at Fox a long time ago, and it was actually about to play the lead role. I was extremely impressed by him. And his hearing was amazing. I was texting everyone: "Oh my god, read David Gyasi. You have to watch it. I am happy to be able to work with him.

What kind of feedback did he offer on these sequences?

TB: He is a very thoughtful actor on both the historical context and the context of the story. He thus helps us enormously in the scenes, sharing his comments and the perspective he brings based on his own experiences.

Technically, are fauns the most difficult makeup for actors?

MG: Yes, the makeup effects on the show were made by a genius named Nick Dudman. It is a legend in this area. He worked on Harry Potter movies, and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. And he designed the Jack Nicholson prosthesis for the Joker in Batman. So, he's literally the perfect person to do this show, and he's always inventive.

In season 2, we will literally double the number of fantastic creatures we see in the series. And Nick not only created these creatures, but also went back in search of better ways to make the fairy wings and apply the puck horns. He constantly proposes new and different ideas, both in terms of creation and delivery.

TB: Nick is our Q. He is an incredible engineer, as well as an artist. All this for television because it moves at a certain pace. It's very different from movies and Nick is very aware of that.

What are your new fantastic creatures?

TB: We examine different varieties of slices and fairies – different forms of horns and different forms of wings, breeds within races. But beyond that, you will get creatures that are our version of elves, and others that look like goblins, and many other things. The menagerie of the world will really develop in season 2, not bad.

How does season 2 advance?

MG: Awesome. We have a very long period of preparation, and we're almost done with the eight scripts for the second season, and we do not even start production until the end of September. So we are very, very far ahead of the curve, which is very much what we like to be and how you have to make a show of this size.

You also have eight episodes for Season 2?

MG: Yes, we liked that. We have structured Season 1 in the form of an eight-chapter novel, because we have noticed that some short series are structured as a film in which the structure is composed of three acts. Travis and I found that the middle of the season tended to take a little less time on these shows. With our approach, we are in the middle when everything is growing and really changing. We are therefore allowed to tell a story where each episode has an impact, and each episode is full of important moments and characters revealed.

Because of the fancy elements and the amount of construction of the world involved, it seems like it's a show designed for an online fandom. Did you have this element in mind?

TB: We are vaguely aware, on the periphery, that buzz and enthusiasm are starting to grow.

MG: I have some fan experience, and I think that when the talk is positive, it's a wonderful thing. Because television is fun and interactive. We write so far before the episodes that there is simply no way to react to what fans like or do not like. But when we start broadcasting the series, it's clear that we're starting to realize that this is the kind of series this series is designed for people who go to Comic-Con. And the answer was fantastic.

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The season ends on a dark note, the fae being confined in a ghetto after the political upheaval of the city. When you decided to finish like this, what kind of narration did you expect it would make for Season 2?

TB: At the end of Season 1, all of our characters are in completely different circumstances from the beginning of the series. And that also includes the Burge itself. The change that the city undergoes in the eighth and final episode is so seismic that it really triggers Season 2. It would not be possible to tell the story we tell in Season 2 without this change.

Will it be a more political season?

MG: The political angle will be explored in a different way. The only thing we look at is never the exact duplication of what is happening in the real world. Farm animal It is a kind of analogue where we are face to face, but creating a situation that seems to address the real world. One of the most difficult aspects of the composition of the political trajectory of Season 2 is that we do not just want to do: "Oh, who is our Donald Trump?". Instead, we want to tackle current problems, but in our own way, in a way that is faithful to the characters we have created.

TB: We could have a questionable political leader who is very poorly qualified for the position he occupies. You can draw your own conclusions.

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