Next year, HBO will debut a new comedy about a space cruise, captained by Hugh Laurie, where everything goes wrong. That sentence alone would make most of us watch, but this next one ups the ante even further: It’s created by Armando Iannucci, who did Veep.
The show is called Avenue 5 and if you think about the awkward, hilarious, smart humour of Iannucci’s other work, then filter it through a grand idea like Wall-E, you begin to get the idea. Josh Gad, Suzy Nakamura, Zach Woods, and others are also along for the ride and the first trailer is right here.
Evil Hugh Laurie? Weirdo Josh Gad? A space-cruise that Disney is basically building for real in the next few years? Yeah, we’re on board with this for sure. In fact, we can’t wait.
[referenced url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2019/04/hbo-greenlights-the-space-tourism-comedy-avenue-5/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/czpkbuwnmn5cr3uzxir7.jpg” title=”HBO Greenlights The Space Tourism Comedy Avenue 5″ excerpt=”We’re going to need something to fill that giant comedic hole Tormund’s heavy milk drinking will leave behind, why not find it in space? HBO has given a series order to Avenue 5, a sci-fi comedy starring Rebecca Front (Humans) and Hugh Laurie (House). The latter will play the captain of a cruise ship…in a future where space is the new tourism craze.”]
That trailer is so fun and quirky and beautiful, it feels like it’s for a show that shouldn’t even exist. We’re getting strong Star Trek meets The Poseidon Adventure meets Veep vibes? We guess? The whole thing is almost too weird for words. But that’s what gives us hope.
Avenue 5 debuts in January on HBO.
Editor’s note: Foxtel usually airs HBO content in Australia so you can expect it to arrive there in the coming months.