CULTURE

See Cara Delevingne With Faerie Wings in the First Teaser for Carnival Row

The steampunk-looking fantasy drama premieres on Amazon later this summer.


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Courtesy Amazon Prime

The Monday after Game of Thrones ended, did you wake up, remember there was no more dragon show, and think, Ah, yes, the fantasy show I need now is one that actually deals with its immigration issues? In that case, bless Amazon Prime, which has really come through on that specific niche: On Monday, the streaming service announced its forthcoming drama Carnival Row, a long-incubating fantasy series starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne (and a surprising number of alums from the History Channel drama Knightfall) to which Guillermo Del Toro was once attached, will premiere August 30.

It might not fill the Game of Thrones–shaped hole in your heart (despite the presence of Indira Varma, best known for playing Ellaria Sand), but it will certainly do…something. Amazon released a short teaser clip alongside the release date announcement, one that doesn’t offer up much in the way of plot but certainly sets the mood—and gives us a glimpse of Cara Delevingne’s faerie wings. “There is a rift in the city,” Delevingne says in the clip. She and Bloom stand back to back, she in a pixie cut with translucent blue wings that do not look aerodynamically sound, he in a tall bowler hat and wool overcoat. Those wings: They look insect-like, sort of dragonfly-inspired, but not nearly proportional to Delevingne’s character’s humanoid size. Can she really fly on those, or will this be another Sonic the Hedgehog–type deal?

“Time is running out; something inhuman approaches,” Bloom chimes in. “We must all come together,” Delevingne says.

It’s a little vague and ominous, but it all comes together with a little context. In Carnival Row, Delevingne plays a faerie named Vignette Stonemoss, Bloom a detective named Rycroft Philostrate (all the names in this show are utterly demented, but, Absalom Breakspear aside, these are two of the most egregious offenders) living in the titular refuge for immigrant mythological creatures run out of their homelands by, you guessed it, humans. They embark on an illicit affair, but, per IndieWire, “she also has a secret that could endanger his world.” Ominous.