'The Nevers' Trailer: HBO's Victorian Superhero Series Debuts This April

Victorian era ladies with superpowers is a hell of a premise, even if The Nevers has had a bit of a hellish production. A supernatural action series set in a rich fantasy world featuring an ensemble of butt-kicking women, The Nevers was being primed as Joss Whedon's return to TV before the creator left the project midway, leaving HBO to bring in Philippa Goslett to replace him as showrunner and executive producer and cut the show's 10-episode order down to six. But despite the show's troubled background, it looks to make a strong debut on HBO this April.

Watch the official The Nevers trailer below.

Set in a world where a population of people "touched" with powerful abilities are persecuted, The Nevers looks like a cross between X-Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. But most significantly, The Nevers is refreshingly original — while familiar in some areas, it is not based on a book or existing IP. It sets up a very intriguing world: one where the "touched" are either profited on or persecuted, with a small group of superpowered women deciding to take their fates into their own hands.

Starring an ensemble cast that includes Olivia Williams, James Norton, Tom Riley, Rochelle Neil, Eleanor Tomlinson, and Nick Frost,  The Nevers was dreamed up by Whedon, who was set to showrun and executive produce the series before he suddenly departed the project in November. Though this seemed to result in a shortened first season, those first six episodes will be "Part One" of season 1, and will be followed by "Part Two," also six episodes, at a later date, per HBO.

The Nevers is also executive produced by Bernadette Caulfield, Ilene S. Landress, Doug Petrie, Jane Espenson and Philippa Goslett. Amy Manson, Pip Torrens, Denis O'Hare, Zackary Momoh, Elizabeth Berrington, Kiran Sawar, Anna Devlin, Viola Prettejohn, and Ella Smith round out the cast.

Here is the synopsis for The Nevers:

August, 1896. Victorian London is rocked to its foundations by a supernatural event which gives certain people – mostly women – abnormal abilities, from the wondrous to the disturbing. But no matter their particular "turns," all who belong to this new underclass are in grave danger. It falls to mysterious, quick-fisted widow Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) and brilliant young inventor Penance Adair (Ann Skelly) to protect and shelter these gifted "orphans." To do so, they will have to face the brutal forces determined to annihilate their kind.

The Nevers premieres on HBO on Sunday, April 11, 2021 at 9:00 P.M. ET/PT. See the new poster for The Nevers below.