It was announced back in August that Disney Plus was developing Nautilus, a prequel series tracing the early adventures of Captain Nemo, the literary icon readers first met in Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, as part of a commitment to productions operating outside of the United States.
As you may be aware, today is the day where the Mouse House’s streaming service offers up details of countless new, exclusive and incoming projects, and the ball is already rolling. As per Deadline, Shazad Latif will headline Nautilus as the iconic Nemo, with Love and Monsters director Michael Matthews tapped to direct.
Latif is best known as Star Trek: Discovery‘s Ash Tyler, but he’s been quietly racking up credits for a while now, most notably on the BBC’s The Pursuit of Love. As for Matthews, Love and Monsters was one of last year’s most unsung gems, and he’s evidently banking on his future lying in the fantasy genre having also signed on for Disney’s live-action Merlin movie.
The ten-episode Nautilus is poised to start shooting in Australia next month, so we could be looking at a late-2022 or early-2023 bow for what’s got all the potential in the world to last for multiple seasons as a big budget underwater epic.