HBO Orders Armando Iannucci Comedy To Series

HBO has given a series order to the Armando Iannucci-helmed Avenue 5.

Avenue 5 is a sci-fi comedy that takes place 40 years in the future and focuses on space tourism. The series is created, written and executive produced by Iannucci and will star Hugh Laurie and Rebecca Front (who both previously had prominent roles in Iannucci's The Thick of It), Lenora Crichlow (Fast Girls), Suzy Nakamura (Veep), Zach Woods (Silicon Valley) and Josh Gad (Frozen).

Laurie will play Ryan Clark, captain of space cruise ship Avenue 5. Gad is Herman Judd, the billionaire face and name behind the ship. Woods stars as Matt Spencer, the nihilistic yet nice head of customer relations. Meanwhile, Rebecca Front will play a stowaway passenger and Lenora Crichlow is an engineer.

Avenue 5 marks Iannucci's return to television following his critically-acclaimed satire The Death of Stalin, which was nominated for two BAFTAs. Iannucci has already made his mark on HBO with Veep, a political satire starring Julia Louis Dreyfus which will conclude next month.