Hey, Clone Club: The Orphan Black universe may be expanding with a new AMC series
Aux Features Orphan BlackThe Orphan Black televised universe could be expanding, even if it no longer involves Tatiana Maslany reminding us of her bottomless talent with each clone.
Per Variety, sources claim that a new series set against the same backdrop as the popular BBC America series is in early development at AMC. Just to get some of the more important matters out of the way: No, this will not be a reboot or a spin-off. The intention is to tell a completely different, hopefully equally batshit story. Temple Street Productions, the company that produced the original series, is reportedly signed on for the new project, but has yet to officially comment.
It is rather early, so there aren’t any known attached writers or a solid premise as of yet. There’s also no prevalent explanation as to why the new show is developing under AMC rather than its sister channel and original home, BBC America, but a simulcast is not entirely ruled out, either. Orphan Black ended in 2017, a year after Maslany snagged the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. If you haven’t gotten around to finishing the final season yet, maybe now is the time.
41 Comments
No thanks. I liked Orphan Black because Tatiana Maslany was amazing in it. The convoluted battle between Neolutionists and Proletheans is not something I want to see more of.
I’d definitely watch at least another season of Orphan Black; this seems like an ill-advised cash-grab.
How about a series all about those universally beloved Castor clones?
You mean the Poochies who almost literally all died on the way back to their home planet island?
I actually kinda liked the Castors. Ari MIller was no Tatiana Maslany, but I thought he did an pretty good job making the characters different, and I was genuinely sad when the last couple of them were killed off.
My pitch for the spinoff: Helena and Art run a food truck, specializing in Ukranian-soul food fusion. They solve a different mystery every week in some Toronto neighborhood, with Art now a PI and Helena as his muscle
Would watch.
TAKE ALL MY MONEY
Lol, You’re hired!
Can Helena’s “bebbies” be aged up a little and just as homicidal as their mother?
I watched the whole series, and I’d have trouble even describing who worked for who to do what. It feels like a Lost where they started with a cool premise and then didn’t really have an idea for what to do with it. Maslany holds a lot of it together by sheer charisma, but whole seasons are almost entirely irrelevant to the larger plot, such as it is.
The convoluted battle between Neolutionists and Proletheans is not something I want to see more of. I agree, in essence – that battle, and the other conflicts/mysteries during the run of the show, gave all the Tatianas things to investigate, be afraid of, be betrayed by, fool, beat up, investigate……I unreservedly love the show, but its varying plotlines always took a back seat for me compared to the interplay between Maslaney-as-anyone, and anyone else.
I unreservedly love the show, but its varying plotlines always took a back seat for me compared to the interplay between Maslaney-as-anyone, and anyone else. I would take this a step further and say I had no fucking idea what was going on after Season 1 and I absolutely did not give a fuck because I was there to see Maslany. For me the plot wasn’t just in the back seat, it was background noise. Which is probably for the best because, from what I gather, it was pretty stupid.
I liked some conspiracies better than others (I thought the Neolutionists were pretty cool bad guys), but the Clone Club could have been taking on biker monkeys as long as Maslany got to do her amazing thing week after week.
It was the Neolutionists! No it was the corporation! No it was the military! J/k we’re back to the Neolutionists now! That show had a great lead performance and no idea what story it wanted to tell.
Seriously. I cannot think of a worse show that has such an amazing performance (or series of performances) in it. The writers made a conscious choice to spew out some convoluted pseudoscience dreck instead of just a high concept sitcom of Tatiana Maslany interacting with Tatiana Maslany and it was like… uhhhh nope that’s LITERALLY THE ONLY THING ANYBODY IS INTERESTED IN. The first two seasons had enough of the latter interspersed throughout to maintain steam, but the cracks started showing—severely—around the 70th time that Helena was kidnapped and isolated by some organization and there were suddenly boring-as-fuck male clones to contend with.I totally get why they started cutting down on the ‘look at how many Tatianas there are’ scenes because, whoof, what a pain in the ass that must have been. But the easiest solution to that would seem to me to be animation. You can have as many Tatianas as you want and she can do it all from the comfort of a sound booth!
I stopped watching this show after the second season made clear the writers didn’t deserve any benefit of the doubt and were just coasting off Maslany’s performance. It’s too bad Graeme Manson replaced Josh Friedman for that Snowpiercer series.
“coasting off Maslany’s performance.”Very true. But since it was such a stellar performance, it was worth riding along with it to the end. Miss this show so much.
Tensions were apparently high on set the last season, with the actress that played Sarah Manning resentful of the attention given to the actresses playing fan favorite characters Cosima and Krystal, and everyone finding the actress that played Helena difficult and even frightening to work with.
You joke, but supposedly Maslany would stay in-character between takes and was a real pain in the ass on days they were shooting Helena.
I know, I’ve read that! One of the directors complained to the showrunner that Helena was impossible to direct. Amazing.
Must be why they kept writing Helena into an isolated corner where she wouldn’t appear for over half of the season despite the fact that she was the most goddamn compelling character on the show.
Helena’s relationship with food, with Sarah, with Felix, with Art, with Gracie, with Donnie, and with her scorpion friend were all great, but yeah too many of her scenes had her isolated from the rest of the cast, and there were rarely enough of them
And everyone loved working with her the days she played Cosima, who always had a super-fun energy
Helena was my favorite character in the first season. But like a candle that burns brightly at both ends, there’s a natural endpoint for such a character, and I thought poorly of the show for keeping her around.
I remember thinking the first time that Tatiana Maslany and Kristian Bruun were on Comedy Bang Bang that it was weird they’d never shared any scenes together on Orphan Black. Took me too long to realize my mistake.
At the Orphan Black Comic-Con panel one year they said that Tatiana Maslany’s mother visited the set one day when Tatiana was playing one of the non-Sarah clones. Her mother asked somebody when Tatiana was going to be back on the set. HER OWN MOTHER FORGET SHE PLAYED ALL THE CLONES
That’s understandable. His iconic turn as Constable Johnstable tends to overshadow his other work.
I heard that the actor who played Alison insisted MK get written off the show. Insecure about a new face, I guess.
Bottomless is not an adjective I ever expected to see in the same sentence as Tatiana Maslany.
Did you not see the pilot episode of Orphan Black, which starred both Tatiana Maslany and her amazing butt (which to my mind deserved equal billing)?
This article reminded me that I never finished watching season five, then forgot the show existed.
Tatiana is obviously the best part of the show but I still enjoyed most of the supporting cast. I’ll say I’m cautiously optimistic. Also, I hope they use the same design team for the opening sequence.
Yep. Felix/Jordan Gavaris stole nearly every scene he was in. More of him please!
Obviously Maslany was the best thing about that show–geeking out over her performance was basically the favorite pastime of all my drama nerd friends–but it had a pretty feminist show that at least tried to explore ideas related to women’s bodily autonomy. This isn’t the worst idea.
I love the idea of exploring various Orphan Black story lines, especially if they can work in FELIX! Seriously, AMC seems like a good fit, especially if it takes a darker, more serious tone and AMC commits to making it a prestige show. The last season of Orphan Black was my least favorite because it seemed pressured to tie up loose ends while pushing the uninteresting neolution silliness. With a new AMC series, they might have more time to explore the Clone universe. And, FELIX!
If we’re picking the right fit for Orphan Black, I think it should go to FX. They’re prestige too, but also a darker network than AMC, and have dabbled in a bit more sci-fi also.
We can all heap much scorn on the meandering it took to get there, but I still reckon this was a rare mystery box show that stuck the landing.
No, this will not be a reboot or a spin-off.
If they are expanding the universe, then yes, it is in essence, a spin-off.
Nah, I’ll pass. I didn’t even watch the last season.
I’ll watch a followup to Orphan Black without Tatiana Maslany in it, if it stars Armie Hammer, Hayley Mills and Lindsay Lohan.