Joss Whedon's next episodic offering, THE NEVERS, is steadily coming together, and today Deadline has exclusively announced that THE FALL and OUTLANDER alumna Laura Donnelly is set to lead the straight-to-series drama destined for HBO. Co-written by Whedon and Buffy the Vampire Slayer alums Jane Espenson and Doug Petrie, with Whedon also serving as director, THE NEVERS is billed as a sci-fi epic about a gang of Victorian women who find themselves with unusual abilities, relentless enemies, and a mission that might change the world.
Donnelly will play Amalia True for the series, who Deadline says is 'the most reckless, impulsive, emotionally damaged hero of her time. A menace to stuffy Victorian society, she would die for the cause and kill for a drink.'
“Laura Donnelly has charisma, wisdom and an anarchic precision that not only captures Amalia but defines her,” said Whedon. “She’s fierce and she’s funny – and I need both for the journey ahead.”
In the past, Whedon has introduced sci-fi fans to some of the most iconic female protagonists in the genre, including Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and Echo (Eliza Dushku) of the 2009 cult-series DOLLHOUSE. Could Amalia True be yet another one of Whedon's female action icons in the making? Will the Victorian setting lend to all manner of Gothic mysteries unfolding before HBO audiences? Will giving Whedon the keys to a cable kingdom allow him to take his ideas further than ever before? Let's hope so, as THE NEVERS could be another pop culture touchstone just waiting to be embraced by today's Hot Topic crowd and beyond.