HBO Orders A Space Cruise On AVENUE 5

What could go wrong with a three-hour space tour with Hugh Laurie at the helm?

Last August, HBO ordered the pilot for Avenue 5 from Veep creator Armando Iannucci and now have asked for the series. The space tourism comedy will star Laurie, Silicon Valley’s Zach Woods, The Comedian’s Josh Gad alongside Rebecca Front, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Lenora Crichlow, Suzy Nakamura, and Ethan Phillips.

Avenue 5 is described as a “space tourism comedy set 40 years in the future when the solar system is everyone’s oyster.”

Iannucci will produce with Kevin Loader, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche, and Will Smith executive producing.

This will be Laurie’s second venture with Iannucci, after Veep. His character, Captain Ryan Clark, is the “suave, outwardly confident, controlled and personable” captain of the space cruise ship. Woods is Avenue 5’s Head of Customer Relations, Matt Spencer, a “nice guy who can’t wait to get to the end of his final cruise before promotion to a more senior role on Earth.” He comes with a performance back ground but gave up being an entertainer years ago.

Their boss is Josh Gad’s Herman Judd, the billionaire face behind Avenue 5 along the whole Judd brand, which includes hotels and fitness clubs as well as space tourism. Used to a life of luxury thanks to his money from holiday resorts, Judd thinks he’s good at everything, leaving the experts he employs to give him the answers he wants. His right-hand woman, Iris Kimura, will be played by Suzy Nakamura. She’s straight to the point, a fixer, with a very particular sense of humor, making sure Judd gets what he wants – even if it’s unclear – and making sure it doesn’t cause anyone or anything harm.

Nikki Amuka-Bird plays Rav Mulcair, Head of Judd Mission Control on Earth. A slightly odd person, she’s extremely intelligent but frustrated and exhausted by the lack of control. Mulcair is also feeling guilty for sending her two best friends into space as an attempt to fix their marriage.

Billie McEvoy will be played by Lenora Crichlow. She is a young, outspoken, smart and career focused second engineer exhausted by responsibilities. While she loves to build and fix things, she is also terrified of dying in space.

Rebecca Front is Karen Kelly, illegally using her sister’s non transferable Avenue 5 ticket. She’s a natural born leader, strong willed, articulate, and likable and finds herself becoming the voice of the passengers.

Finally, returning to space, is Ethan Phillips of Star Trek: Voyager. His character Spike Martin is an elderly, former astronaut who is a womanizer and heavy drinker, yet great with kids. He thinks he should have a higher status due to his achievements as an astronaut, yet nobody really knows who he is. He loves to boast he was the first Canadian to land on Mars….which isn’t exactly true.

There have been no announcements to the number of episodes or a possible premiere date.