Carnival Row Season 2 Trailer: The Orlando Bloom-Led Fantasy Is Coming To An End

Sometimes I forget "Carnival Row" is a real show and not a dream I once had. A series where Cara Delevingne plays a pixie named Vignette who's at the center of an escalating fae-human conflict, while Orlando Bloom is the human-passing fae detective and her star-crossed lover? A series that dropped eight episodes of this story way back in 2019, only to go radio silent for nearly four years between seasons? There's no way that's not just a product of my exhausted imagination.

Surprisingly, though, the folks over at Prime Video have just released a trailer for the show's second and final season, which would indicate I'm wrong. Not only is this a real show, but it turns out it's actually coming back next month for a concluding batch of episodes that looks to see tensions between magical folks and humans rise to new dramatic levels.

According to the official season 2 synopsis, "Carnival Row" will pick up with a continuation of the first season's plot, with Bloom's Philo investigating a series of killings that have stoked social unrest in its retro, steampunk-inspired city setting, The Burgue. In case you need a refresher, the first season ended with a pretty bleak setup, as the city's fae were rounded up and segregated from the community, with Philo choosing their side despite his ability to pass as human.

"Carnival Row" has been a show about the dangers of intolerance from the start. In her review of the first season, /Film's Vanessa Armstrong wrote that "the real Big Bad is bigotry, how people can dehumanize those who are different, and how that 'othering' can lead to the loss of basic dignity and rights." But the show is clearly ratcheting up the tension even more this time around, as fae folk are apparently being subject to execution without trial. "If they shoot at us, nail our heads against a wall, they will pay for it in their own blood," Vignette declares before we see shots of what looks to be an outright battle in the streets.

In November, news broke that the show's second season would be its last, which comes as little surprise given the way most if not all streamers are currently tightening their purse-strings. When the show first premiered, critics and viewers wondered aloud if it was set to be a "Game of Thrones"-level series, but Prime has since moved onto an even bigger gamble with "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."

"Carnival Row" is set to return to Prime Video on February 17, 2023.