Orlando Bloom lands first major TV role in Amazon's Carnival Row

Orlando Bloom is returning to the fantasy genre for his first major television role. The Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings actor will star in and produce Amazon Studios’ new hourlong drama, Carnival Row, which received a straight-to-series order earlier this year.

The eight-episode project is described as a “fantasy noir set in a neo-Victorian city.” It’s a place ripped apart by tension between its citizens and immigrant population — i.e. mythical creatures who have fled their war-torn homeland. Bloom will star as Rycroft Philostrate, a police inspector who must solve the murder of a faerie showgirl on the eponymous Carnival Row.

Travis Beacham, who executive produces the series with showrunner Rene Echevarria, revealed more details on the character on social media. “A veteran of a foreign war,” Rycroft is described as “sharp-eyed,” “stalwart, principled, haunted in a way, and not without his share of secrets.”

Beacham initially wrote the script for Carnival Row when it was a feature film called A Killing on Carnival Row. Guillermo del Toro was once attached to direct the project in 2005, but fell off when it stalled in production. EW confirmed Amazon and Legendary Television’s development of Carnival Row as a series in 2015.

Echevarria penned the latest script for Carnival Row, and Paul McGuigan will direct and executive produce. According to Beacham, filming on season 1 will begin in two months ahead of a premiere in 2019.

Bloom was last seen on the big screen reprising his role of William Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. He also appears in the action film Unlocked, starring Noomi Rapace and Michael Douglas.