#’The Nevers’ Star Laura Donnelly Calls the New HBO Thrill Ride ‘Batman Crossed With Sherlock Holmes’

The Victorian era gets a steampunk slap in the face with this clever, action-packed thrill ride.

“It’s like Batman crossed with Sherlock Holmes,” says Outlander’sLaura Donnelly, who stars as Amalia True, a scrappy London widow struck by a cosmic event in 1896 that’s left a small group of women with unusual abilities, in The Nevers.

Treated as outcasts, the “Touched” find refuge in the Orphanage, a haven where Amalia and her inventor bestie Penance Adair (Ann Skelly, below right, with Donnelly) have an armory of futuristic weapons and vehicles to help keep their kind safe. Good thing, because in addition to a pansexual aristocrat (Grantchester’sJames Norton) out to exploit the Touched in his underground club, a madwoman named Maladie (Amy Manson) has abducted a seemingly gifted opera singer (Poldark’sEleanor Tomlinson) with ties to an enigmatic cop (Ben Chaplin).

“Maladie is just so fascinating,” offers Donnelly, adding that we’ll learn more about her, Amalia’s backstory, and how they relate. Expect “tons of humor” and plenty of girl power too. “Amalia has a deep caring for these women that she has gathered around her. And add to that a lot of really cool fights and stunts!”

The Nevers, Series Premiere, Sunday, April 11, 9/8c, HBO