HBO’s new Avenue 5 trailer is “Star Trek + Veep”

Back in April, I told you about a new space comedy for HBO, called Avenue 5. The show was to be produced by Armando Iannucci (of The Thick of It and Veep) and star Hugh Laurie as Ryan Clark, the “suave, outwardly confident, controlled and personable” captain of space cruise ship Avenue 5.

Now, Birth.Movies.Death has shared an official teaser trailer for the show, and it’s “basically Star Trek + Veep”. From the piece: “This is the first teaser trailer for Avenue 5, which lays bare what Iannucci's latest series is about: it's something of a workplace comedy set aboard an interstellar cruise ship, one captained by Laurie, owned by [Josh] Gad's billionaire character, and staffed by a number of folks who seem absolutely fed up with the clientele they deal with every day. It's a little bit Star Trek and a little bit Veep, and everything on display here is classic Iannucci (which is to say: it looks funny in an acidic, mean-spirited way).”

Will Avenue 5 become another series, like The Orville, to capitalize on the opportunity to poke fun at ultra-serious space sci-fi? Find out for yourself when Avenue 5 premieres exclusively on HBO, in January 2020.