Amazon Prime original content has been stepping up through the gears recently. The latest big production is period fantasy series Carnival Row and the recent arrival of the trailer has confirmed the release date, music and theme song for the show. Unlike other series like The Mandalorian, which is a Disney+ exclusive Star Wars spin-off that appears to be only available in the US on launch, the Amazon series will get a UK release, which should compensate a little.
The massive cast is led by Orlando Bloom (Pirates Of The Caribbean Salazar’s Revenge) and Cara Delavigne (Suicide Squad) as Rycroft Philostrate and Vignette Stonemoss. The two find themselves in a city where mythical creatures are the immigrant population following a previous meeting that ended badly. With tensions running high, the situations gets even more precarious when a series of unsolved murders wrack the city.
AdvertisementRelease date in the UK
Carnival Row had a UK release date of the 30th August 2019 on Amazon Prime and from the look of the trailer below it feels a little like Netflix’s Bright meets Sherlock Holmes with a little love story shimmer for good measure. Unlike Disney+ originals like Star Wars spin-off TV series The Mandalorian, the Amazon Prime show will be available to stream in the UK on the same date as in the US.
However, you can tell from the quality of the production on shows like Carnival Row, The Mandalorian or Netflix’s The Witcher TV series that they’re all jostling for position. The introduction of Disney+ is a big part of this, but in all fairness Amazon Prime and Netflix were already trading blows with great content, so if anything’s things are only going to get better and better for viewers.
AdvertisementYou can check out Carnival Row on Amazon Prime at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S47J47H.
Carnival Row cast
In addition to Delevingne and Bloom the cast for the new TV series also features Indira Varma (This Way Up), who you’re bound to recognise as Ellaria Sand from Game Of Throwns. The cast also includes David Gyasi (Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil) as Agreus, Tamzin Merchant (Supergirl) as Imogen Spurnrose, Andrew Gower (Black Mirror) as Ezra Spurnrose and Jared Harris (The Man from U.N.C.L.E. film) as Absalom Breakspear, Simon McBurny (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 2011 remake) as Runyan Millworthy and Karla Crome (Thunderbirds Are Go!) as Tourmaline.
The ensemble cast is rounded out by Alice Krige, Ariyon Bakare, Maeve Dermody, Jamie Harris, and Anna Rust.
You can follow the official Carnival Row Twitter page at https://twitter.com/CarnivalRow to see more about the cast in the buildup to the release date.
Theme tune and trailer song
There were initially a couple of options for the Carnival Row theme tune with the trailer song that you can hear in the video below being the most obvious contender. It’s a song called Where We Come Alive and it’s taken from Ode To Shadows, which was American singer and songwriter Maggie Eckford’s opening album as Ruelle.
In addition to featuring as the music for the trailer, her previous work has been used for a number of different TV series theme songs with Game of Survival used as the title tune for Dynasties, This Is the Hunt used for Shadowhunters and Until We Go Down on The Shannara Chronicles. However, it turns out that the Carnival Row theme song isn’t Ruelle’s song, so she doesn’t get her fourth music credit for a TV show.
The other contender for the theme song was Billie Eilish’s Bury A Friend, which features in the background of the Carnival Row TV advert spot, which you can watch below the trailer. It’s a darker piece of music, so it arguably fits the series a little better than Ruelle’s song, but again it wasn’t used.
Instead, it was American composer Nathan Barr’s original music that has been used. His previous work includes scoring horror flicks like Cabin Fever and Hostel, along with TV series True Blood and Sneaky Pete. He started his career as assistant to Hans Zimmer and the Carnival Row theme song is his latest work for the small screen. You can check out the opening credits in the video below to hear the tune in full:
Carnival Row age rating and parents guide
As ever, TV series like Carnival Row don’t get an official age rating in the UK or the US, so it’ll be more down to parents’ discretion. There’s a lot to go on from the trailer and TV spot below, but the actual series pushes the boundaries more than these would imply. There’s definitely some darkness to it all, and a few sex scenes, so it’s probably fair to say that this would probably come in as a 15.
If you compare to a film like Bright, which features similar creative content, it picked up an age rating of 15, but then there were more intense hand gun fight scenes than the period setting of Carnival Row allows. Another comparable film would be Pride And Prejudice and Zombies, which was given a 15 certificate too, but then that seemed more violent overall. However, the combination of dark moments, violence, language and sex scenes are enough to put this in the 15 bracket too.
