We’d virtually forgotten about HBO’s darkish comedy Avenue 5, which debuted proper earlier than the world shut down in response to a world pandemic. But the collection, which stars Hugh Laurie because the captain of a luxurious cruise spaceship touring the photo voltaic system, was renewed for a second and closing season. And now we now have an official trailer to present us an concept of what is in retailer for the beleaguered passengers and crew.

(Spoilers for the primary season under.)

As I’ve written beforehand, the collection is the brainchild of Armando Iannucci, greatest recognized for creating the stellar HBO comedy collection Veep, which gained a number of Emmy awards over its seven-season run. Avenue 5 is ready roughly 40 years sooner or later, when personal spaceflight, aka area tourism, is completely a factor. The titular area cruise ship is modeled after at this time’s luxurious ocean liners, full with fantastic eating and common train courses. But the ship skilled main technical difficulties, leading to a course malfunction that meant it might take three years for the return journey, fairly than the scheduled six months. The crew scrambled to unravel the issue whereas maintaining the passengers from panicking. 

In addition to Laurie as Captain Ryan Clark, the forged contains Silicon Valley‘s Zach Woods as Matt Spencer, head of buyer relations, and Josh Gad as smarmy billionaire Herman Judd, who owns the Avenue 5 and pretends to be a person of the folks, when he is frankly fairly the snob. Making Captain Ryan’s job much more tough is Karen Kelly (Rebecca Front), a bossy passenger who apparently is on board beneath false pretenses, having used her sister’s (nontransferable) ticket.

Rounding out the forged are Suzy Nakamura as Iris Kimura, an affiliate proprietor of the ship; Lenora Crichlow as second engineer Billie McEvoy; Himesh Patel as slapstick comedian Jordan Hatwal, acting on the Avenue 5; and Ethan Phillips as former astronaut Spike Williams, whose boozy womanizing methods inevitably trigger tensions.

The large reveal of the pilot episode: The foremost engineer was killed, and Clark admitted he was truly an actor, employed to be a reassuring figurehead on the ship. In truth, all of the seen “crew” on the bridge have been actors and fashions, and their bridge “controls” have been merely props, as a result of Judd wished to attain a sure search for the Avenue 5. The actual crew operates “backstage” and does the actual work of working the ship.

In the season finale, Rav Mulcair (Nikki Amuka-Bird), head of Mission Control on Earth, efficiently introduced a two-person shuttle to Avenue 5, however just one particular person might head again with the pilot—which meant if Judd went again, Rav could be caught on the ship with everybody else. In the tip, Iris was by chance despatched again. Meanwhile, an try to jettison ballast (pointless objects) to right course and shorten the return journey to 6 months as an alternative of three years backfired spectacularly. The ballast was jettisoned from the portside fairly than the rear, and now the journey dwelling will take eight years.

I loved the primary season, though I felt it by no means fairly discovered its comedian footing, and the tone was a bit uneven. It will be difficult to search out humor in an inherently darkish scenario. I suppose it depends upon how amusing you discover a particles discipline that features ejected coffins orbiting the ship—or seven passengers self-ejecting from the airlocks to their deaths as a result of they’re satisfied they’re on a prank actuality present—darkly hilarious or disquieting. Filming for the second season was delayed because of the COVID pandemic however finally concluded final November. Per HBO’s official description:

Picking up 5 months after failing to reroute the vessel, season two follows the crew—together with fiery engineer Billie, unpredictable head of buyer relations Matt, and trustworthy right-hand Iris—as they battle to steer, calm, management, and, if want be, conceal from more and more unruly passengers. On Earth, they’re lauded as heroes, and in area, everybody can hear them scream.

In the trailer, we see Matt insisting that the passengers needs to be informed concerning the new, longer timetable for returning dwelling. Clark balks, largely as a result of the meals is operating out. If he tells the reality, “I’m going to develop into the subsequent all-you-can-eat buffet.” He even insists all the things is ok to Iris, who’s now again on Earth with Mission Control. But possibly they will not have time to starve to demise for the reason that ship appears to be on a collision course with the Sun—as Rav calls it, “The large yellow most cancers manufacturing facility made out of lava. That one.” But hey, not less than they’ve choices.

The second and closing season of Avenue 5 involves HBO and HBO Max on October 10, 2022.

Listing picture by YouTube/HBO Max