‘Carnival Row’ Season 2: Cast, Filming, And News Updates

In August 2019, no one knew what to expect from the steampunk, neo-noir, fantasy social commentary from Amazon Prime Video. But the fanbase’s impatience for Carnival Row Season 2 speaks for itself. Despite its unique style and dark overtones that might relegate it to a niche audience, it garnered wide acclaim. Many saw it pulling stylistic inspiration from the work of Neil Gaiman and Mortal Engines. 

It combines a lot of different genres that a lesser production team couldn’t pull off. Mythical fairies, political drama, and serial killers don’t easily blend into a cohesive show. But the cast and crew created something special and compelling for audiences.  We can’t wait to see what they bring to the table with the next season, especially considering the cliffhanger left by Season 1.

So here’s everything we know so far about Carnival Row Season 2!

Carnival Row Season 2 Production

Carnival Row is the creation of René Echevarria and Travis Beacham. They based the concept on Beacham’s script A Killing on Carnival Row. The first season launched on Amazon Prime Video in August 2019.

The series stars Orlando Bloom, well known for his role as Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Cara Delevingne, an English supermodel, actress, and singer, stars alongside him. She’s well-known for her first leading role as Margo in Paper Towns, a movie adapted from a famous John Green novel. 

Bloom plays Rycroft “Philo” Philostrate, a human detective, and Delevingne plays Vignette Stonemoss, a fae. They live in the Burgue, a city splitting apart as mythical beings experience racism from the humans that invaded their home. As members of different sides of the social warfare, their connection is more than taboo.

Philo is a detective investigating the work of a gruesome serial killer. What he discovers will tear the city even further apart.

Production for Carnival Row Season 2 began not long after its premiere. This would be great news for a quick turnaround for eager fans if everything went according to schedule. However, the team faced several hurdles when shooting for the second season. 

The production team got started in the Czech Republic by November of the same year. However, as you could expect, filming got put on hold in March 2020 due to COVID-19. Once the government reopened for productions, they worked until August 2020 and paused production once again. Tamzin Merchant, the actress who plays Imogen Sprunrose, admitted in an interview in February 2021 that they only finished five of the eight episodes for Carnival Row Season 2. 

They resumed in May 2021. This time, the pause wasn’t COVID related, but to accommodate star Orlando Bloom. He was unavailable during some of the original production dates as he was spending time with his newborn child. Production officially wrapped for good in September 2021. Then, the difficult work that comes with a special effect-heavy show began: post-production.

Carnival Row Cast

The two main characters, Philo and Vignette, will of course return. Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevigne have been spotted getting into character in production photos on set.

Tamzin Merchant and David Gyasi’s star-crossed lover pairing, Imogen Spurnrose and Agreus Astrayon, also must return. We need to discover how Imogen and Agreus’s love will resist the new apartheid. Imogen’s brother Ezra Spurnrose returns as well, played by Andrew Gower.

Vignette Stonemoss’s former lover Tourmaline Larou plays a role in Season 2, so Karla Crome will return. Acting Chancellor Jonah Breakspear will come again to rule Burge with an iron fist, so Artemas Froushan came back to play the character.

Sergeant Dombey, played by Jamie Harris, got promoted to a series regular from his recurring role. We’re sure that with the new era of apartheid, his racist ideals will only grow more vocal.

Additionally, Simon McBurney will return as Runyan Millworthy and Caroline Ford returns as Sophie Longerbane. 

While the main cast will remain the same with more characters added on, the production team behind the scenes has changed. Marc Guggenheim acted as the showrunner for Season 1, but he declined to return for Carnival Row Season 2. Showrunner Erik Oleson, whose previous work includes Unforgettable and Daredevil, will take the helm. He also wrote the first episode for the upcoming season. Travis Beacham, the writer of the source material, reportedly left the project due to creative differences. It will be interesting to see if and how the show takes creative turns without an original co-creator on board. 

Carnival Row Season 2 Release Date (Speculation)

Like the first season, Carnival Row will consist of 8 episodes. If we go by the timeline of the first season, Season 1 took over a year to premiere after production wrapped. In a show that relies so heavily on special effects for worldbuilding, it’s essential that the editing team gets to take their time with the footage in post-production.

If shooting wrapped in September 2021, we can estimate that we could see Carnival Row Season 2 premiere as early as the beginning of 2023. Hopefully, we’ll get a trailer for Carnival Row by the fall of 2022. We’ll keep you posted (and keep this article updated) as more details are released!

Whether or not we’ll get the episodes all at once is another question. Streaming services have discovered success by releasing TV shows one or a few episodes at a time. It draws out buzz for the show, rather than everyone bingeing all the episodes in one sitting. So whenever Amazon announces the release date, it will be interesting to hear whether or not we get all of Carnival Row Season 2 all at once. 

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