The Trailer for 'A Discovery of Witches' Promises Supernatural Delights
“Once the world was full of wonders,” Downton Abbey’s Matthew Goode intones ominously in the opening lines of the first trailer for upcoming fantasy drama A Discovery of Witches. “But it belongs to humans now. We have all but disappeared.”
Thus begins Sky’s newest big thing, a fantasy epic involving witches, vampires, demons and humans, with a big sprinkling of romance on top.
Based on the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness, A Discovery of Witches follows the story of an Oxford professor – who’s also a vampire – and a student, who happens to be a witch descended from the women of Salem. While at Oxford, Diana manages to stumble upon an important magical book long sought after by pretty much every other magical species there is. She and her discovery attract the attention of Professor Matthew Claremont, just one of the magical beings intent on hunting down this particular tome. Trouble obviously ensues as magical war threatens to break out.
The subsequent forbidden romance between Matthew and Diana complicates things even further, as magical species apparently aren’t supposed to intermingle. Because, of course they aren’t.
The series’ all-star cast also includes Hacksaw Ridge actress Teresa Palmer, alongside Doctor Who star Alex Kingston, The Blacklist’s Valarie Pettiford, Sherlock’s Lindsay Duncan, Game of Thrones’ Owen Teale and more.
Watch the trailer for yourselves below:
I know it’s been a while since Downton and all, but whew, Matthew Goode is certainly a looker. Well done, Mary Crawley, you definitely got that one right in the end.
It definitely doesn’t hurt that A Discovery of Witches has a sort of Twilight meets Downton vibe with a dash of Harry Potter thrown in to it. (Which is to say these are all things that have already piqued my interest completely.)
The series will air on Sky in the U.K this Fall, but doesn’t have an American distributor that we know of yet. That seems likely to change in short order, as Harkness’ books were bestsellers and promise at least several seasons worth of material if adapted correctly. (Shadow of Night and The Book of Life are the two novels that follow A Discovery of Witches.)
Are you a fan of Harkness’ trilogy? Are you looking forward to A Discovery of Witches? Let’s discuss!
