What if comic book superpowers existed in the real world? Would it be just heroes and villains, locked in an eternal battle between good and evil? Or would people with supernatural abilities use their powers to go after what powerful people have always wanted – wealth, privilege, and more power?
DEVIANTS will follow shows like BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA, GAME OF THRONES and THE WALKING DEAD in taking on a familiar and fantastical genre, but re-inventing it in a contemporary, adult and hyper-realistic style.
The show will be, in the strictest sense, a superhero story, fully embracing the mythology, world-building, and archetypes of the genre, but in a naturalistic, character-driven way. Instead of relying on a repetitive, action-driven formula designed for feature films, it will put the focus squarely on human drama – sex, money, love, companionship, family, status, power and political intrigue.
In short, superpowers will take a backseat to storytelling.
Synopsis
FAOLON FLYNN is a hard-working Irish Catholic scholarship kid whose life is turned upside down when he discovers he's secretly the unacknowledged son and heir of a wealthy and powerful family. Powerful, as in, superpowers.
For centuries, the Society of the Six – a kind of shadowy country club for Bay City’s most elite families – has kept their “talents” a closely guarded secret. The six families prefer to maintain their empires using ruthlessness and cunning, rather than supernatural abilities. After all, super strength and x-ray vision are just so passé.
But just as the elite have allowed their talents to fall into atrophy and disuse, they find that common citizens are now manifesting their own powers – and taking to the streets as real-life superheroes. Faced with this unsettling new threat, and an outsider like Flynn knocking at their door, some in the Society move to block Flynn’s ascension as head of his family and rob him of his birthright.
Flynn is thrown into a dangerous and fantastical world where even the most spectacular abilities are outflanked by palace intrigue and political manoeuvring. Ultimately, Flynn will have to make a choice: Retreat to the comfort of his former life, or turn the tables and make his own play for power.
In the end, Flynn steps up – even staging an attack on his own life to cast suspicion on his adversaries and flush his enemies out into the open. This won’t be the last shot that gets taken at Flynn. Good thing for him, he’s got some tricks of his own up his sleeve.
