Joss Whedon’s upcoming HBO show The Nevers today added 12 new cast members. The premium network also released a list of descriptions for each actor’s respective character, which helps to build out the relationships between all these new additions while offering some insight into the show’s Victorian-era take on superheroes.
The series today added to its roster Olivia Williams (Miss Austen Regrets), James Norton (Grantchester), Tom Riley (Dark Heart), Ann Skelly (Death and Nightingales), Ben Chaplin (The Children Act), Pip Torrens (The Crown), Zackary Momoh (Seven Seconds), Amy Manson (Torchwood), Nick Frost (Fighting With My Family), Rochelle Neil (Death in Paradise), Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark) and Denis O’Hare (This Is Us), according to Deadline.
The series follows star Laura Donnelly’s Amalia True, a member of the Touched -- a group of Victorian women who find they have extraordinary powers. Naturally, there will be a whole host of enemies looking to capitalize on this discovery.
Williams will play Lavinia Bidlow, the old-fashioned, wealthy patron of the Touched who runs their headquarters, the Orphanage. Norton will play Hugo Swan, a pansexual boy with an interest in the Touched who runs a secret club and is known to trade in blackmail.
Riley will play Augustus “Augie” Bidlow, Lavinia’s younger brother and Hugo’s best friend who is a nerdy but clever ornithologist. Skelly will play Penance Adair, Amalia’s best friend and the first she recruits into the Touched -- her superpower is that she’s a genius-level inventor.
Chaplin will play Detective Frank Mundi, the intensely moral cop caught between the Touched and the elite who have little regard for law and order. Torrens will play Lord Massen, a former general and member of the elite who looks to defend his home from the chaos he believes the Touched will cause.
Momoh will play Doctor Horatio Cousens, a West Indian physician who has fallen on hard times since meeting Amalia and discovering his own abilities. Manson will play Maladie, a gang leader who lives beneath London and was driven mad by her own abilities and the doctors who sought to understand them.
Frost will play Declan Orrun, the Beggar King, who runs much of London’s criminal activities and occasionally works with the Touched (though he’s equally likely to work with the opposition). Neil will play Annie Carbey, codename Bonfire, whose pyrokinetic powers make her the perfect career criminal.
Tomlinson will play Mary Brighton, a failed singer whose surprising path to success is right around the corner. O’Hare will play Dr. Edmund Hague, and American surgeon with a sadistic streak who uses his gifts to better understand the world… no matter the cost.
The Nevers is directed and produced by Whedon. Buffy the Vampire Slayer alums Jane Espenson and Doug Petrie co-write the series. A premiere date for the series has not yet been announced.