When the series ended in 2017, nobody involved with “Orphan Black” really wanted to leave its labyrinthine world behind.
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“The vibe there was special, the crew, the cast, the creators, it was a real love in, to be honest,” co-creator John Fawcett told IndieWire. “And there was lots of joking about the spin-off. My vote was that it should be Donnie and Art living in a bachelor suite because their wives left them, and they’re solving crimes. But that didn’t really fly. We also talked about wanting to see Alison and Rachel and Sarah, what are they doing in the future? There were lots of conversations about the future of ‘Orphan Black.'”
RIP to the Art and Donnie spin-off, but what creator Anna Fishko eventually crafted with “Orphan Black: Echoes” — on which Fawcett is a co-executive producer and director — is a smart distillation of the original’s tone with a time jump to 2052 that finds cloning has evolved into… 3-D printing of people. (The show sells the hell out of the idea, we swear.)
Krysten Ritter’s Lucy successfully escaped the clutches of a scientist (Keeley Hawes) and has been living off the grid… until she is found by a mysterious security squad and meets Jules (Amanda Fix), a teenage print-out of Lucy. Turns out, they are both printouts of the same person, but to what end and why remains the mystery they attempt to solve as wary teammates. But the first episode dropped a major bombshell in its final moments. That scientist whom Lucy flees? The woman responsible for the 3-D printing of people? It’s none other than Kira Manning, the perennially endangered child in “Orphan Black,” all grown up and doing some questionable experiments of her own.
“Even as Graeme Manson and I were winding up the old show, [we were] talking about what if we wanted to come back and make a reunion show at some point. What are the characters doing?” Fawcett said. “And there was a lot of discussion about Kira. And those conversations ended up becoming conversations that happened with Anna as we were leading the developing of ‘Orphan Black: Echoes.'”
Set just far enough in the future that things feel just slightly off in a discomfiting way, “Orphan Black: Echoes” tackles big themes with wit and humor — even as the stakes are high. And though it is firmly set in the “Orphan Black” universe, it is its own beast, down to a more stylized look.
As Fawcett said, comparisons to the original are inevitable. So rather than lean too heavily on what came before, the show peppers its story with Easter eggs and callbacks, from photos of the OG clones on Kira’s desk to a few cameo appearances. But this is a very different mystery from what propelled “Orphan Black.” In that, Tatiana Maslany’s clones were seeking answers about who they are; here, Lucy and Jules are trying to find out why.
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And just as “Orphan Black” wouildn’t have worked without Maslany’s powerhouse performances, so too does “Orphan Black: Echoes” live or die by its casting. And it required much more than just talent; they needed an actress who looked enough like Ritter to convincingly play her younger self. And not just in flashbacks; the two share scenes for most of the series, allowing more time for side by side comparisons.
“It was obviously a big challenge,” Fawcett said. “You just got to be patient with it and it was time consuming and it was joyful. It was frustrating. We’re just lucky. We found Amanda Fix in Vancouver and Amanda’s a really talented young actor and she just blew everyone’s socks off.”
Fix gets some of the series’ best moments, playing Jules’ teen angst for all it’s worth. She might have just received life-altering news, but she’s still going to be more annoyed than devastated by the disappointing adults in her life.
That humor is a welcome ingredient to the show, just as it was on “Orphan Black.” And it serves a secret function. “I really feel [humor] allows me or allows the viewer to accept kind of absurd premises,” Fawcett said. “That humans can be 3-D printed in the future. Or cloning or werewolves or whatever. You allow the characters to find humor and allow the material to be funny, even when it’s supposed to be ‘serious.’ I think humor always brings people in.”
New episodes of “Orphan Black: Echoes” premiere Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on AMC.
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