Sky has acquired the UK rights to ‘Warren’s Vortex’, a six-part New Zealand sci-fi comedy from creators Nick Ward and Paul Yates, two of the writers and directors behind ‘Wellington Paranormal’. The series is currently lined up to arrive on Sky Comedy and NOW in August, bringing a distinctly Kiwi spin to parallel-universe adventures.
Originally commissioned for TVNZ 2 and TVNZ+, the 6 x 23-minute comedy was produced by Kitchen Table Productions with support from NZ On Air. It first aired in New Zealand in 2025 before also being picked up by SBS On Demand in Australia.
At the centre is Warren Harrison, played by Maaka Pohatu (Wellington Paranormal), an ordinary Lower Hutt dad whose garden shed contains something rather less ordinary: an interdimensional vortex. Warren has apparently had the thing for nearly two decades, but rather than using it to explore the cosmos, he has mostly treated it as an extremely questionable way to dispose of lawn clippings.
That changes when Warren’s teenage daughter Lucy, played by Louise Jiang (Sweet Tooth), is sucked through the portal on her 18th birthday. He jumps in after her, and the pair begin bouncing through twisted alternate versions of their suburban New Zealand home while attempting to find a way back.
The setup gives ‘Warren’s Vortex’ a different reality to play with each week while keeping the father-and-daughter relationship at its centre. The opening episodes, “Desolation of Smugg” and “Detached from Reality”, send Warren and Lucy into a world ruled by intelligent refrigerators and another where every Kiwi garden has become part of a deadly reality television competition.
Later episodes take aim at the housing market with laser-eyed estate agents, mobile gaming through a zombie outbreak, murder mysteries and the apparently unthinkable concept of a rugby-free New Zealand.
Alongside Pohatu and Jiang, the cast includes Kali Kopae (Northspur) as Warren’s wife Hine, Cohen Holloway (Hunt for the Wilderpeople) as Muzz, Milo Cawthorne (Deathgasm) as Darren, Ginette McDonald (The Rule of Jenny Pen) as Mrs Schrödinger, and Millen Baird (M3GAN) as Inspector Phil.
The series is directed by Tim van Dammen and Jason Stutter, with scripts from Ward, Yates, Rosie Howells, Dana Leaming, Jamie McCaskill and Tom Sainsbury.
For anyone who enjoyed the dry, low-key absurdity of ‘Wellington Paranormal’, this looks like another dose of distinctly New Zealand weirdness. This time, however, the paranormal activity has moved out of the police station and into the garden shed.
‘Warren’s Vortex’ Season 1 is currently listed to premiere Monday, 10th August 2026 at 9pm on Sky Comedy and NOW, with all episodes available on demand.
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