Tom Hardy’s darkly surreal FX miniseries Taboo releases a new ominous, revenge-fueled trailer.
FX has one of the more intriguing upcoming television events in its stable with Taboo. The 8-episode dramatic miniseries represents a pond-crossing co-production between the Fox American cable outlet and BBC One. Brandishing A-list star Tom Hardy, the 1814-drama showcases the shadowy spiritual journey of a presumed-dead man who returns home to London from a decade-long African sojourn, brandishing dark knowledge to right wrongs regarding his late father’s legacy, acting as a revenant of sorts.
Indeed, based on what we know, the miniseries will see Hardy’s Delaney returning home as a man of not only two continents, but two spiritual planes, carrying out an agenda that remains mysterious. The implications in Delaney’s business dealing could have international ramifications, involving merchant ships and the East India Company, connecting to the War of 1812. However, given the macabre imagery we’ve been seeing in the trailers, I wouldn’t expect anything akin to a documentary on The History Channel.
Taboo Latest News
“Forgive me father, for I have indeed sinned.”
A new Taboo trailer has arrived, focused on the return of Tom Hardy’s James Keziah Delaney’s mind-blowing return to early 19th century London after being presumed dead for several years. Having been betrayed by a conspiracy involving the Crown, the East India Company and even… gulp, the Americans, Delaney spent his prolonged exile in Africa, tapping into his spiritual side, emerging as a menacing man with a mysterious purpose.
Delaney’s more immediate goal, however, is pure revenge. Indeed, the new trailer shows him sending shockwaves to all the wrong people in London. When he’s not scaring the crap out of some avariciously corrupt people who hide shameful skeletons in their closets, he’s fending off assassins in alleys with stabby precision! It’s pretty clear that Delaney won’t be denied his revenge and the 10-episode miniseries should be an intense showcase of uber-violent justice.Check out the latest trailer below!
Taboo Premiere Date
In an announcement that was nearly a year in the making, FX has revealed that Taboo will premiere on Tuesday, Jan. 10, at 10/9c. However, fans in the U.K. can catch it first on January 7 on BBC One.
Additionally, a new poster has been released showing a potentially poetic representation of Hardy’s character James Keziah Delaney, whose return to his urban existence in London covered in a sartorial façade belies the African war paint that adorns his stoic grimace.
Our previous story below as it appeared on September 9, 2016:
Taboo Trailer Starring Tom Hardy Shows a Dark, Surreal Tone
It’s been nearly a year since we first learned about Taboo, an exciting historically-based television event headlined by A-list film star Tom Hardy. However, a new teaser trailer was dropped by the show’s American platform FX, proving that audiences should not let the “historical” part fool them into believing that this will be some fanciful, costumed, pedantic piece of piffle. Indeed, the latest Taboo trailer shows an extremely dark, borderline supernatural side to the series that belies previous descriptions!
The stupendously cast-stacked series Taboo conveys a historically-grounded, gritty, muddy maritime epic set against the backdrop of 1814 London during the height of the infamous East India Company’s power. However, things get freaky quite quick with Tom Hardy playing James Keziah Delaney, a businessman thought to be dead after a 10-year stint in Africa, who suddenly emerges back in London with a curious comeback announcement… at his own funeral!
It quickly becomes clear that Delaney didn’t spend the breadth of his presumed demise in Africa fecklessly imagining tea and crumpets. Rather, he emerged one with humanity's primordial motherland with a body covered in ink, experiencing macabre visions that fuel a mysterious agenda against the East India Company. The latest Taboo clip from FX, focuses on Delaney’s deadly vision quest, seemingly taking this historical epic into intriguingly morbid genre territory.
Taboo still doesn’t have a premiere date locked down, but FX teases a debut sometime in early 2017. In the meantime, check out the new trailer below!
Update: 2/25/16:
Taboonow has a trailer...
Our original story below as it appeared on November 23, 2015:
It has been announced that Tom Hardy has head down to London to begin filming a limited run, eight-episode television drama called Taboo, which will air on BBC One and FX.
Hardy is quickly becoming the hardest working man in show business. He has blown audiences away in the titular forefront of Mad Max: Fury Road, embraced a dual role as gangster twins in the recent drama Legend, performed opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in this January’s The Revenant and can rightly consider 2015 a good year already. However, he’s clearly not slowing down.
Set in 1814 London, Taboo has Hardy playing a character names James Keziah Delaney. After having spent 10 years in Africa, Delaney returns home to discover that his father has left him a mysterious and rather dubious business legacy that he is compelled to correct. Delaney soon finds himself clashing with the powerful East India Company in a situation that will see tensions escalated to international levels, involving the conflict between Britain and the then-embryonic nation of the United States. Of course, a key theater in the three-year-spanning War of 1812 involved maritime aggression between merchant ships.
Interestingly enough, in Taboo, Tom Hardy has a project that he actually helped co-create along with Steven Knight, who created Hardy’s other part-time television series platform, Peaky Blinders. Also having a hand at creating this story, was Tom's father, Chips Hardy, who had a few writing credits for UK television series’ in the late 1980’s. However, the younger Hardy will have quite the amount of pull, since the series will be a co-production between Ridley Scott’s Scott Free London and Tom Hardy’s own company, Hardy Son & Baker.
Besides the commanding and increasingly ubiquitous presence of Hardy, the show also features a sprawling and impressive supporting cast of international players with name such as Michael Kelly (House of Cards, Everest), Jonathan Pryce (Game of Thrones, Pirates of the Caribbean series), Oona Chaplin (Game of Thrones, Quantum of Solace) and David Hayman (Macbeth, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit), along with several more.
No premiere date for Taboo has been scheduled as of yet.