Halfway through the eight episode first season of “Penny Dreadful,” Showtime has given its newest series a big vote of confidence.
Showtime has officially renewed “Penny Dreadful” for a second season, with series creator John Logan (Skyfall) once again slated to write every episode. However, “Penny Dreadful” is expected to get more than eight episodes next season, but the episode count wasn’t included in the initial announcement from Showtime.
“Penny Dreadful” stars Josh Hartnett, Timothy Dalton and Eva Green as paranormal investigators in Victorian England who cross paths with several literary monsters including Dorian Gray, Dr. Frankenstein and his creature.
As noted by Deadline, the survival and early renewal of “Penny Dreadful” is largely thanks to its status as the most watched new show on Showtime on Demand and Showtime Anytime with 3.6 million viewers across those platforms. By comparison, the pilot episode of “Penny Dreadful” only drew in 872,000 viewers on its first airing and 1.44 million viewers when factoring in the encore presentation of the pilot.
Production of “Penny Dreadful” Season 2 will begin later this year in Dublin before the series returns to Showtime with new episodes in 2015.
