HBO Commissions New Space Comedy Starring Hugh Laurie, Ethan Phillips

Apparently sci-fi is big television business again. Hot on the heels of Star Trek: Discovery and Fox’s The Orville, HBO, seeking to fill it’s post-Game of Thrones roster, has commissioned a new sci-fi comedy, and they’re not pulling any punches.

TV Line brings us the story: The new series, “Avenue 5”, was created by veteran producer Armando Iannucci and set to star “House MD” actor Hugh Laurie as Ryan Clark, the “‘suave, outwardly confident, controlled and personable’ captain of space cruise ship Avenue 5”. Quoting the piece: “Avenue 5 is a ‘space tourism comedy set 40 years in the future when the solar system is everyone’s oyster. With Hugh Laurie as the Captain, nothing can go wrong?’”

If you haven’t heard of Hugh Laurie then I can only assume you have been living under a rock, but Armando Iannucci is less a household name on this side of the pond...His past creations include critically-acclaimed British series “The Day Today” and “I’m Alan Partridge”, as well as the political satire “The Thick of It”, and more recently the HBO comedy “Veep”, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Rounding out the cast of “Avenue 5” is an ensemble of notable actors, including Josh Gad, Lenora Crichlow, Suzi Nakamura, and a name familiar to Trek fans: Ethan Phillips.

No word yet on when we’ll get to see Avenue 5 on our small screens.