James May creating new Amazon travel series
The Grand Tour star James May is developing a solo TV series for Amazon, which will see the former Top Gear host traveling throughout Japan.
James May has racked up plenty of miles traveling for Amazon‘s The Grand Tour, but now he’s off on a solo adventure. Amazon Studios has commissioned Our Man In Japan with James May, a six-part travel show that will showcase the TV host as he explores Japanese culture.
According to Deadline, filming started this week. A premiere date hasn’t been announced, but it will likewise be a Prime Original.
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The new project doesn’t mean the end of The Grand Tour; part of Amazon’s contract for that show also called for May and his co-hosts Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond to develop individual projects for the brand.
It’s also well in line with what May has been doing outside of The Grand Tour (and previously Top Gear) brand for years now. He’s had plenty of solo efforts; two of them, James May’s Toy Stories and James May’s Cars of the People, can be streamed for free right now with Amazon Prime.
What makes this interesting is its premise. Fans know that during Top Gear Series 11, May and Hammond tried to navigate Japan during one of the show’s famous races.
While Clarkson tore through the country in a Nissan GT-R, May and Hammond had to race him by using the country’s famous Bullet Train—but that didn’t work out so well for them. May struggled with the language translation device that Top Gear had given them, and the duo wound up briefly separated and even more confused.
Hopefully, May will have a much easier go of things when he returns for Our Man In Japan, but it’ll be fun for Amazon Prime viewers to see how he gets by the next time around. Plus, it’s a practical given that the producers will find the weirdest and most intriguing parts of the culture for him to try.
That’s what audiences expect from a James May show. Whether it was Man Lab with its quirky industrial ideas (like putting cameras on cats for a neighborhood watch), or Toy Stories where he built a life-size Lego house, he always does something just a little bit weird but with even more childlike glee. This new program will be perfect for him, provided he doesn’t get lost.
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While audiences wait for the new series, you can stream past programs with James May through Amazon Video now, and get excited for The Grand Tour Season 4—which is also going into filming later this year.