Amazon Studios has built a reputation for creating and/or adapting inventive superhero projects – and The Power could be another similarly positioned hit for its streaming platform.
Starring Toni Collette (Knives Out, Hereditary), Auli’i Cravalho (Moana), and Toheeb Jimoh (Ted Lasso season 3), the forthcoming Prime Video thriller series will aim to shock audiences with a worldwide tale based around gender imbalance and a single superpower.
Based on Naomi Alderman’s best-selling novel of the same name, The Power takes place in a world not unlike our own. However, one fateful day, teenage girls across the globe suddenly develop the ability to electrocute people at will. This nature-based power is hereditary, there’s no ‘cure’ for it and, most important of all, wielders can awaken the same power in their older mothers, sisters, cousins, and grandmothers.
Unsurprisingly, the emergence of this superpower leads to complete reversal of gender-based power balance in the world. Soon enough, the sparks of revolution are ignited, and men are quickly viewed as the lesser of humankind’s genders. The fallout that follows, then, will be as dramatic, suspense-filled, and electrifying as you can imagine.
Check out some more first-look images of the series in the gallery below:
Given the surfacing of this superpower across the world, The Power will have a global feel to it. Viewers, then, should expect the series’ events to play out in multiple nations, including the US, UK, Nigeria, Eastern Europe, and further afield.
The Power has been developed for Amazon’s streamer by Alderman herself, with a 10-episode first season greenlit for one of the world’s best streaming services in February 2019. Raelle Tucker (True Blood, Jessica Jones) serves as showrunner, and joins Alderman, Jane Featherstone (Chernobyl), and Reed Morano (Billions) on the series’ executive producing team.
Originally, Leslie Mann (This is 40, Croods: A New Age) was slated to play the series’ lead role. However, owing to scheduling conflicts, Mann dropped out in April 2021, with Collette replacing her in August of that year.
Collette, Cravalho, and Jimoh are joined by notable actors including John Leguizamo (Violent Night, Ice Age), Eddie Marsan (Ray Donovan), Ria Zmitrowicz (Mr Selfridge), Rob Delaney (The School for Good and Evil), and Alice Eve (Star Trek Into Darkness).
The project, which could become one of the best Prime Video shows if it resonates with critics and general TV fans, comes from production company SISTER, which played a significant role in the development of Chernobyl, one of the best HBO Max shows ever made.
The Power doesn’t have an official release date yet, but it’ll land on Prime Video in March. Stick with TechRadar for more details on its launch when we have them.
For more Prime Video coverage, read up on the best Prime Video movies, find out if there’s a free trial for Prime Video, or get the lowdown on how much a Prime Video subscription costs.