O captain, our captain!
House‘s Hugh Laurie presides over a doomed spaceliner in HBO’s upcoming Avenue 5, where it appears that not even an impressive beard and captainly gravitas can save the titular ship from disaster.
In the recently released (and slightly NSFW) teaser above, Laurie’s Ryan Clark confidently strolls the decks of his galactic cruise ship, glad-handing passengers and tossing off phrases like, “Fly safe, fly true” and “Set your phasers to ‘fun’.” It’s all going swimmingly until something terrible happens belowdecks, causing the ship to careen sharply to one side… and then things get much worse.
The official logline for the series, which hails from Veep creator Armando Iannucci and which will premiere in January, calls it a “space tourism comedy set 40 years in the future, when the solar system is everyone’s oyster.” Josh Gad (The Comedians) co-stars as Herman Judd, the man behind Avenue 5 and its parent brand of hotels, fitness clubs, etc. Zach Woods (Silicon Valley) also stars as Matt Spencer, Avenue 5’s Head of Customer Relations. “Despite being a nihilist, Matt is a nice guy who can’t wait to get to the end of his final cruise before promotion to a more senior role on Earth,” according to the official character description, which also notes that Matt “has a performance background, but gave up trying to make it as an entertainer years ago.”
The cast also includes Suzy Nakamura (Dr. Ken), Kyle Bornheimer (Playing House), Ethan Phillips (Star Trek: Voyager) and Nikki Amuka-Bird (Luther).
Press PLAY on the video above to watch the series’ first footage, then hit the comments: Will you book a ticket on Avenue 5?
