First Photos of Natalie Dormer in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS and New Details
Thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we have our first look at Game of Thrones actress Natalie Dormer in the upcoming series Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. Dormer takes on the role of a demon named Magda in the series. Series creator John Logan says that Magda is the character that "makes it a Penny Dreadful.” She plays into one of the show's major themes, “demonization of the other."
Dormer’s character is a “shape-shifting hell queen” and the actress describes the character as a “delicious, multidimensional thrill,” an “agent of chaos” who can “sow the seeds of disorder.” It’s explained that we’ll meet three of Magda’s manifestations as humans, and “the audience will discover who those identities are as they continue to watch the show.”
When asked what Magda’s goal on earth is, Dormer explained, “she’s fundamentally a skeptic of humanity. She says in the first episode, ‘I give human beings a choice, but they choose time and time again to be seduced by the more baser, selfish roles.’”
Magda has a sister named Santa Muerte (Lorenza Izzo). She is an immortal ferrywoman who guides human souls to the afterlife, the Holy Angel of Death is “a force of benign common goodness,” Logan says, noting it’s “a very combative and complex relationship.” She takes an opposing view.
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels is a “opens in 1938 Los Angeles; a time and place deeply infused with social and political tension. When a grisly murder shocks the city, Detective Tiago Vega (Daniel Zovatto) is embroiled in an epic story that reflects the rich history of Los Angeles: from the building of the city’s first freeways and its deep traditions of Mexican-American folklore, to the dangerous espionage actions of the Third Reich and the rise of radio evangelism. Before long, Tiago and his family are grappling with powerful forces that threaten to tear them apart.”
When talking about the new series, Logan explains, “this may be the first television show in history about the building of the freeway.” This new series is built around Tiago Vega, whose family is displaced by the freeway’s construction; he serves as the first Chicano LAPD detective, working to solve a grisly murder with his mentor, Officer Michener (Nathan Lane).
Logan goes on to say that City of Angels “is about the social and personal cost that goes into making a great modern metropolis and how the various forces at play in 1938 are the very forces that are playing now. One hundred years before our show, Los Angeles was Mexico. I wanted to tell a story about a Latino family under pressure because of all the forces at play—not only in freeway building but also in crime, law enforcement, and immigration policy.”
I loved the first Penny Dreadful series and this sounds like it’ll be another fantastic show that tells a wonderfully dark supernatural story mixed with historical elements.