Carnival Row

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Andrew Gower portrays Ezra Spurnrose in the Amazon Prime fantasy-noir series Carnival Row.

Ezra is the son of a wealthy watchmaker in The Burgue, a fictional city where mythical creatures fleeing their war-torn homeland have gathered, and tensions are simmering between citizens and the growing immigrant population.

After the death of his father, Ezra tries to fulfill his tasks as new head of one of the most prominent families to the best of his abilities, running the family’s business and taking care of his sister Imogen (Tamzin Merchant). However his frequent shortcomings cause him increasing frustration, which occassionally leads to violent outbursts.

When one of his more risky enterprises – ferrying fae migrants to The Burgue as indentured servants – falls through, he finds himself under financial straits. Reluctantly he agrees to follow Imogen’s plan and enter a business partnership with Mr Agreus (David Gyasi), a wealthy puck which has recently moved into their neighborhood.

When he begins to suspect that Imogen is falling in love with the puck, Ezra will stop at nothing to protect his family’s reputation while the conflict between humans and faes in the city escalates.

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The story is based on an unproduced filmscript by Travis Beacham called A Killing on Carnival Row, which in 2005 made its way on to The Black List – an annual list of the best unmade scripts, chosen by Hollywood insiders. The original script focused on a murder mystery in a Victorian-esque city while the series’ topical themes of immigration, racism and gender equality were later added by René Echevarria.

On 15 December 2017, Deadline.com announced that Andrew Gower joined the cast of Carnival Row as a recurring character. Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne star in the series which was filmed in the Czech Republic from September 2017 until March 2018. Nine months later, in December 2018, cast and crew returned to Prague for re-shoots and eventually wrapped filming on 20 January 2019.

Only weeks later, rumours started to spread that Carnival Row was in talks for a second season which was officially announced one month ahead of the first season’s release on 27 July 2019.

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On 30 January 2018, Orlando Bloom published a short video on his Instagram account, that gave us a first look at Andrew‘s character Ezra Spurnrose, and four months later, on 14 May 2018, Andrew himself gave us another look at Ezra in his very first post on Instagram.

Creator Travis Beacham confirmed in this Instagram post on 1 November 2018 that Andrew had already filmed scenes for Carnival Row one year ago (so about 6-8 weeks earlier than previously assumed).

The eight-part series was released on Amazon Prime on 30 August 2019.

Season 2 started filming at Barrandov Studios in Prague (Czech Republic) and resumed – after a short hiatus following a change of showrunners – in mid-November. Amid the Corona pandemic, production had to be suspended again in mid-March 2020. However, new showrunner Erik Oleson assured concerned fans that filming will be resumed as soon as circumstances allow it.

Production returned to Prague twice, in August 2020 and again in May 2021 eventually wrapping in September 2021. Similarly to Season 1 post-production proofed to be time consuming, and Season 2 was released weekly between 17 February and 17 March 2023. The ten episodes were the show’s final season.

Andrew Gower reprised his role as Ezra Spurnrose.

Episode Synopses:

Watch some of Andrew’s scenes from Season 1 of Carnival Row here:

Further Links: