- “Orphan Black: Echoes” is set 37 years after the end of the sci-fi drama “Orphan Black.”
- Showrunner Anna Fischko told Business Insider that they changed up the clone format to make the spinoff unique.
- She also said there had been attempts to bring back “Orphan Black” star Tatiana Maslany.
Warning: Spoilers for the first episode of Orphan Black: Echoes follow.
Nearly seven years after the series finale of “Orphan Black,” the clone-focused sci-fi show is returning with a new spinoff, “Orphan Black: Echoes,” but this time around, the clone element will be very different, “Echoes” showrunner Anna Fishko told Business Insider.
Like “Orphan Black,” an Emmy-winning series that has garnered a small but devoted fanbase, “Echoes” begins with a headstrong, dark-haired woman stumbling upon a great mystery surrounding her creation. But that’s where the similarities between the two series end.
At the beginning of Echoes’ premiere episode, a woman named Lucy (played by Krysten Ritter) wakes up with no memory of herself and discovers that she’s been created in a neon-pink, futuristic human printer. Throughout the episode, Lucy is plagued by nightmares of her teenage self holding a bloody knife.
At the end of the episode, Lucy meets her teenage self, who does not recognize her. Lucy realizes that the girl is a clone who has been “printed out” just like her.
While the original Orphan Black was praised for starring Tatiana Maslany as multiple identical clones with vastly different personalities, Echoes takes a new approach by featuring clones at different ages.
In an interview with Business Insider ahead of the series premiere, Fishko said this was a deliberate attempt to distance the spinoff from the original show.
“We were really looking specifically to do something different,” Fishko said. “I think everyone felt that Tatiana gave an incredible performance, and no one wanted to do it again. It was hard to imagine a better performance.”
Fishko said the new concept allowed the writing team to explore the original show’s ideas of “sisterhood” and “identity” without repeating the same formula.
Fishko said Tatiana Maslany will not appear in season one due to scheduling conflicts.
“Echoes” is set in 2052, 37 years after the end of “Orphan Black,” but there are many connections between the two shows.
Lucy was born to Kira Manning (Keeley Hawes), the daughter of Sarah Manning (Maslany), the main character of the movie “Orphan Black.” At the end of the first episode, Kira refers to Sarah’s clone, Cosima Niehaus (Maslany), as “Aunt Cosima.”
The camera then cuts to footage of several characters from the original show, including Felix (Jordan Gavaris) and Siobhan (Maria Doyle Kennedy).
Unfortunately for Orphan Black fans, Fishko confirmed to BI that Maslany won’t be appearing in person as her beloved clone character.
“We definitely thought about it and talked about it with her,” Fishko said, “But unfortunately the timing just wasn’t right because she was filming something else at the same time that we were, so it was just really bad timing.”
Fishko added that producers were open to Maslany appearing in future seasons if the series were renewed, but that it was a “tricky balance” to decide how many references to the original show to include without alienating new viewers.
“I think we wanted to make sure that a new audience who’d never seen Orphan Black could come to the show and really get a fresh perspective and enjoy the story, without feeling lost or confused,” Fishko said.
“But, yeah, we wanted to make sure we had something in there for the Clone Club and for the fans of the original,” she said, referring to the main characters from the original show.
Fishko said the writing team had considered bringing in some fan-favorite characters for a spinoff, and had spoken to “Orphan Black” co-creator John Fawcett about what happened to those characters 30 years later.
“It was fun to actually talk to John Fawcett, if you can imagine what happened to them between the end of the first show and this one, which is set 30-odd years later,” Fishko said.
Fishko said Ritter was the blueprint for casting other clones.
Although the clones are different ages, their appearances needed to work together to make the story believable.
Fishko said they cast the role of Lucy first, then decided what the younger version of the character would be like.
“I think Kristen has a very strong exterior, but at the same time, she always seems vulnerable on the inside on screen,” Fishko said. “The character of Lucy has been through a lot and is learning to navigate the world on her own, without any help from anyone, and she also has a strong desire to find connection and family.”
Fishko said they conducted a “global search” to find a young Ritter lookalike, eventually finding Amanda Fix to play the unnamed teen clone at the end of the first episode.
“We were really lucky,” Fishko says, “she’s incredibly talented and a fantastic performer, and she looks pretty similar to what Kristen looked like when she was younger.”
New episodes of “Orphan Black: Echoes” will air Sundays on AMC and BBC America, and are available to stream. AMC Plus.
