Philippa Goslett is replacing Joss Whedon as the showrunner of The Nevers. Premiering on HBO later this year, The Nevers is a sci-fi series which focuses on a group known as the Touched. Comprised mostly of women, the Touched exhibits extraordinary abilities. Those abilities vary. Some can be charming, while others are distinctly disturbing. Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) and Penance Adair (Ann Skelly) are among the Touched, championing the underclass and maintaining a refuge for their peers. There has been a fair amount of anticipation regarding the HBO show, considering Whedon’s reputation, but the project recently experienced a significant shakeup behind the scenes.
Back in November of last year, Whedon announced he was stepping away from The Nevers. The director of Avengers: Age of Ultron referenced exhaustion and a desire to focus on his personal life as the reasons for why he chose to depart from the show he’s credited with creating. While he retained his executive producer title, there have been a fair number of questions from fans about who will oversee The Nevers going forward.
According to Variety, Philippa Goslett is taking over the position of showrunner from Whedon. She’ll also serve as an executive producer, along with Bernadette Caulfield, Ilene S. Landress, Doug Petrie, and Jane Espenson. Goslett has written a number of films. Her credits include Mary Magdalene, which starred Rooney Mara. She also penned the script for How to Talk to Girls at Parties, a 2017 sci-fi comedy, and the Robert Pattinson historical drama Little Ashes.
Goslett joins the cast of The Nevers at the midway point. A source noted to Variety that production on season 1 was halted by the pandemic. The first half of the series completed production in the U.K., which means that Goslett will take charge of the second half. This bifurcation could audiences and critics to spot differences in narrative and style between the initial batch of episodes and the latter half. But, by all accounts, given the genres of the movies that Goslett wrote, which align quite well with the premise of The Nevers, she’s a good fit for the role. Petrie and Espenson, Whedon’s former collaborators on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, are also very talented scribes in their own right.
It remains to be seen what shape the HBO series actually takes. The Nevers unveiled some first-look images, back in December. But, other than that, not to mention the general logline, the series remains a mystery. Hopefully, when it premieres, the merits of the show will be judged without too much focus on the creative turnover from Whedon to Goslett. But, either way, The Nevers has already established among HBO’s most closely-followed upcoming titles.
Source: Variety