CRIMETHINK
Nellie Andreeva
Oct 11, 2019
EXCLUSIVE: There are major behind-the-scenes changes on Amazon’s Carnival Row as the fantasy drama starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne is heading into its second season.
Erik Oleson (Netflix’s Daredevil) has come on board as executive producer and new showrunner. He will succeed at the helm Season 1 showrunner Marc Guggenheim, who has been busy spearheading and executive producing the upcoming big Arrowverse crossover event on the CW. Guggenheim, who also has feature projects in the works, is stepping back from his day-to-day involvement on Carnival Row but will be consulting on the series going forward.
Leaving Carnival Row is Travis Beacham, on whose 2005 Black List feature script, A Killing on Carnival Row, the series was based. Beacham is reportedly exiting over creative differences in a mutual decision. Amazon declined comment.
Beacham co-created Carnival Row with Rene Echevarria, who was the drama’s original showrunner and remained an executive producer. Beacham and Guggenheim will also retain executive producer credits.
For Oleson, the Carnival Row showrunner stint stems from an overall deal he signed with Amazon Studios in March.
Amazon renewed Carnival Row for a second season in July, ahead of its Aug. 30 Season 1 debut. Production on the second season has just began in Prague. I hear the plan is for filming to continue during the showrunner changeover. The series may go on a brief hiatus to give Oleson time to examine the existing scripts and outlines and put his own stamp on them. That is not expected to impact the timeline for when Season 2 will be available on Prime Video.
Carnival Row, which Amazon Studios co-produces with Legendary TV, was met with mixed reaction by critics but has been popular with fans and reportedly has done very well for Prime Video. (Like most streamers, Amazon does not share viewership data.)
The eight-part Carnival Row is set in a Victorian fantasy world of mythological immigrant creatures whose exotic homelands were invaded by the empires of man. Bloom plays human detective, Rycroft Philostrate, while Delevingne stars as a refugee faerie named Vignette Stonemoss. In Season 1, they rekindle a dangerous affair despite an increasingly intolerant society and Vignette harbors a secret that endangers Philo’s world during his most important case yet: a string of gruesome murders threatening the uneasy peace of the Row.
In addition to starring, Bloom executive produces the series, with Delevingne also set to join the EP ranks in season 2.
Oleson most recently was executive producer and showrunner on the well-received third and final season of Marvel’s Daredevil on Netflix. At Amazon, he previously was the head writer and executive producer of the second season of the Amazon Prime Original series The Man in the High Castle, which garnered him a USC Scripter Award Nomination in 2017.
He previously served as writer/co-executive producer on Arrow, co-created/executive produced by Guggenheim. Oleson’s TV series credits also include Kings and Jack & Bobby. He is repped by attorney Jamie Mandelbaum.