Game of Thrones' Natalie Dormer joins new Penny Dreadful series

February 23, 2019

Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer has adopted a new fantasy world as her playground.

The actress, 37, heads to the City of Angels for a starring role in Showtime’s new Penny Dreadful series. And the character seems right up Dormer’s ally.

Dormer brought nuance and intrigue to Margaery Tyrell, an equally kind and vicious player in the game of thrones that was HBO’s Westeros-set epic. You were lucky to have her on your side and cursed to have her as an enemy. It’s in that sense that Magda, her character on Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, is similar.

Magda is a supernatural, shapeshifting demon “who can take the appearance of anyone she chooses and manifests in a number of guises throughout the story,” according to the official description from Showtime. “Charismatic, clever, and chameleonic, Magda is a dangerous enemy and an invaluable ally.”

City of Angels, with all new characters and stories, is a “spiritual descendant” of the original Penny Dreadful, which starred Eva Green and Josh Hartnett in a Victorian-era London setting with all manner of fantastical literary figures surrounding them.

This new series takes place amid the social and political tensions of Los Angeles in 1938, while being heavily steeped in Mexican-American folklore. Daniel Zovatto (HBO’s Here & Now) plays Detective Tiago Vega, whose investigation of a grisly murder that sets him on an epic journey as the city’s first freeways are being built, radio evangelism is on the rise, and the Third Reich commits dangerous acts of espionage. Tiago and his family soon start “grappling with powerful forces that threaten to tear them apart.”

Penny Dreadful creator, writer, and executive producer John Logan will continue in those same roles for Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. Michael Aguilar, Sam Mendes, and Pippa Harris will also executive produce.

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