Showtime has renewed Penny Dreadful.
No surprise here, but the horror drama will be officially be back for a third season in 2016. That season will be one episode shy of its current order, with nine episodes planned for year three.
“John Logan’s brilliant writing and this amazingly talented ensemble continue to draw a passionate, global fan base into the meticulously crafted world Penny Dreadful,” said recently elevated Showtime president David Nevins. “Together with our wonderful partners at Sky Atlantic, we’re excited to see what new haunts John and his team have in store for season three.”
Created by Logan, Penny Dreadful stars Josh Hartnett, Timothy Dalton and Eva Green. It will again film in Dublin, Ireland.
“Penny Dreadful is the perfect fit for Sky Atlantic, truly international in scale and ambition but with a raft of British talent at its core, and filmed in the Republic of Ireland.” said Zaj Bennett, director of co-producer Sky Atlantic.. “I’m thrilled to have the series returning to the channel, and to once again be partnering with John Logan and continuing to work with our good friends at Showtime.”
The first prediction is probably the most obvious at this point, so let’s get it out of the way: Brona is going to be Caliban’s mate. At least, that is what Victor and Caliban might suspect.
Played with a general sense of sadness and doomed misery by Billie Piper, Brona Croft is the sort of tragic heroine one might find in dime novels about the Western frontier on the American continent. Except, this is a “penny dreadful,” and we don’t need lost loves; we need blood and flesh, and all around barbarity. Also, since the other characters are preoccupied with vampires, demons, Egyptian prophecies, and reanimated corpses, there is something too generic about this prostitute with a heart of gold. But what if that heart stops and is replaced with material from a freshly robbed grave? Now, we’re talking!
Ever since Caliban commanded that Victor Frankenstein fashion him a mate, an original conceit from Mary Shelley that birthed the best Frankenstein movie ever made, Bride of Frankenstein (1935), it’s felt inevitable that Caliban will have his wedding day. When we last saw Brona in “What Death Can Join Together,” she appeared to be a death’s door. Perhaps after she steps over the boundary, Caliban will insist that Victor and Ethan Chandler allow him to bring her back through. Of course, if Elsa Lanchester’s influence is any indication, just because she will literally be tailor-made for Caliban does not mean she will welcome the arranged union. And seeing both characters react to a life beyond that initial rejection could be one of Season 2’s strongest starting points.
Playing Brona in Penny Dreadful brought a few challenges for softly spoken, plummy-toned Billie – not least learning the much harsher Northern Irish accent. Shooting the show in Dublin didn’t help, as she found the variations confusing at times. Billie said: “I had a hardcore dialect coach. It’s Northern Irish but it was hard being in Dublin with loads of Dubliners on the set.
“It’s really unhelpful because lots of us are doing different accents, so she was a permanent fixture. Sometimes, I’d practise round the house and we’d listen to a lot of it in my car. My kids would find it really funny. We’d all do it together in my car to a CD and, yes, they loved it.”
In fact, Billie got so good at the harsh Northern Irish accent, she had to tone it down for fear viewers wouldn’t understand her. “Because it’s a very strong accent, as you know, and a hard accent as in how it sounds, it’s sometimes hard to understand. I think we had to be very mindful of it being too Belfast. It was that battle of making everything you say heard but also being true to the accent. Everyone can judge it, now they can see it. God!”
We’ve added some stunning new stills of Billie alongside Josh Hartnett and Eva Green. Many thanks to Far Far Away!