‘Penny Dreadful’ Renewed For Season 3

Penny Dreadful still has a few more episodes this season on Showtime, but the network has already announced its renewal for Season 3, according to Cinema Blend. This won’t come as a huge surprise to Penny Dreadful fans who love this lush, Victorian Gothic thriller, riding on the wave of a huge surge in the popularity of witches on TV these days: Salem, The Witches of East End, and a whole season of American Horror Story dedicated to witchy women in New Orleans.

Not that Penny Dreadful focuses entirely on witches and dark magic. It also shares a great deal of time with a fair share of vampires, werewolves, and even pays homage to the Frankenstein legend from the book by Mary Shelley. In fact, the premise of Penny Dreadful is paying homage to all the monsters created during this Victorian era, with a delicious mix of beastly things that go bump in the night.

Having said that, the primary plot this season on Penny Dreadful does focus on some very bad witches making mischief for its heroine, Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), and all those around her. This season also gave us a glimpse into Vanessa’s past and how she learned to read tarot cards and develop her medium abilities with her former mentor on the lonely moors. And yes, it’s every bit as Victorian Gothic as that sounds.

That means beautifully styled sets, the flicker of candles and gas lamps, and plenty of Victorian finery. While fans of Penny Dreadful may have expected the renewal of such a compelling mix of stories and visual feast that is Penny Dreadful, the news of the renewal comes on the heels of some of the show’s lowest ratings. But apparently Showtime is committed to this dark drama, at least for one more season, anyway.

Penny Dreadful stars film stars Josh Hartnett and Timothy Dalton along with Green, adding into this witches’ brew the respective Frankenstein, Dracula, and Wolfman stories among its lead characters, as well as a healthy heaping of Dorian Gray. Oh yes, Lucifer and his demons like to put in an appearance every now and then as well. Who could imagine so many monsters around at the same time, much less all knowing each other and crossing paths on a regular basis? It’s a small world in Victorian hell, apparently.

Season 3 of Penny Dreadful will run for nine episodes in 2016, according to Showtime. It will also return to Dublin, Ireland, for filming for the next season like the first two seasons of the series. Other cast members include Billie Piper, Harry Treadaway, Rory Kinnear, Danny Sapani, and Reeve Carney.

[Photo courtesy of Showtime]