‘Penny Dreadful’ creator gives intriguing hints about new spin-off ‘City of Angels’

The creator of Penny Dreadful has provided some enticing new details about the upcoming spin-off.

Set in Victorian London, the original Penny Dreadful ran for three seasons between 2014 and 2016.

The British-American horror period drama series featured famous characters from 19th-century Gothic fiction, including Dorian Gray, Van Helsing, Count Dracula, Victor Frankenstein and his monster, and Dr. Henry Jekyll.

Following rumours in 2018, Showtime officially announced last month that Penny Dreadful will return with a new spin-off set in Los Angeles in 1938.

Described as “a bold new vision that will employ all new characters and storylines,” Penny Dreadful: City of Angels will move the story on to “a time and place deeply infused with Mexican-American folklore and social tension.”

Penny Dreadful creator John Logan, who will return to write and executive produce the new series, recently revealed that City of Angels will have “a social consciousness and historical awareness that we chose not to explore in the Penny Dreadful London storylines.”

He explained: “We will now be grappling with specific historical and real world political, religious, social and racial issues. In 1938, Los Angeles was facing some hard questions about its future and its soul. Our characters must do the same.

“There are no easy answers. There are only powerful questions and arresting moral challenges.

“As always in the world of Penny Dreadful, there are no heroes or villains in this world, only protagonists and antagonists; complicated and conflicted characters living on the fulcrum of moral choice.”

Gary Levine, President of Programming, Showtime Networks Inc., added: “We were so thrilled when John Logan came to us with this wildly original take on the Penny Dreadful mythology that explores both the human spirit and the spirit world here in California.

“Penny Dreadful: City of Angels promises to be an extraordinary saga of familial love set against the terrifying monsters that are around us and within us.”

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels is expected to air this autumn on Showtime in the USA and on Sky in the UK.

It hasn’t yet been confirmed if any of the original Penny Dreadful cast – which included Timothy Dalton (The Living Daylights), Eva Green (Casino Royale), Rory Kinnear (Black Mirror), Billie Piper (Doctor Who), Josh Hartnett (Pearl Harbor) and Helen McCrory (Peaky Blinders) – will be returning.

The first three seasons of Penny Dreadful are available on DVD Amazon.