Orphan Black:Echoes, the spinoff sequel series set decades after the original Orphan Black, is now airing Sunday nights on AMC and streaming on AMC+. Cherry the Geek TV spoke with John Fawcett, co-creator of the original Orphan Black and Executive Producer and director of the new series, about what viewers can expect to see in the new show.
“It’s a story of science and identity. The main character is Lucy who realizes she was not born normally. She has been 4D printed biologically in a printer,” Fawcett said. “It sets off a mystery as to who created her, and why she was created, and sets up a scenario where we might find that there are more ‘printouts’ out there in the world. She doesn’t know who she is a copy of, and that is a big part of the mystery of season one as we follow Lucy as she tries to discover who she is.”
Fawcett wants new viewers to know that they don’t have to have seen the original series to follow the story in Orphan Black:Echoes. “This show needed to stand on its own two feet, be its own thing, have its own visual signature and identity–yet share some characters and history with the original show. It’s not necessary to have seen the original show. Does it make it more fun? Kind of. There’s a lot of easter eggs and threads– but it’s certainly not going to change whether you enjoy the show.”
Fawcett says there were always discussions about continuing the original Orphan Black in some form. “There was always a desire to continue. How do we expand this universe. Graeme Manson (the other co-creator) and I really wanted to come back ten years later and see all the clones together and revisit them, like in a reunion. Maybe we still will some day. There was always talk about a spinoff, and what characters if there were to be a spinoff–what would that look like? It took some time to land on the right concept. Obviously we don’t want to remake the original show. The original show is special. You can’t copy it. You have to come up with something that lives in the same universe but is its own thing. It took a while to crack that one, and fortunately Anna Fishko (the Orphan Black:Echoes creator) came up with this great idea of using the character of Kira Manning (Keeley Hawes), setting it in the future and using this technology that doesn’t exist now. That’s the exciting thing about Echoes, I think.”
Krysten Ritter (Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Breaking Bad) stars as Lucy. Fawcett says that the character is written as a “edgy, rock and roll, gives no fucks attitude type that I think Krysten Ritter was really amazing at. I’ve been a fan of hers from things I’ve seen her in and felt that she would fit this perfectly. She’s a really unique performer and I’m glad that she decided to come along for the ride.”
You can watch the full interview with John Fawcett by clicking on the link below:
Orphan Black:Echoes airs Sunday nights on AMC and is available to stream on AMC+.
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