AMC green-lights Orphan Black spin-off series, Orphan Black: Echoes
The series will introduce a whole new set of characters
Aux News Orphan Black
Clone Club assemble because AMC has officially greenlit the Orphan Black spin-off series, Orphan Black: Echoes. Serving as a sequel to the original show, Echoes will be set in the near future and introduce a whole new cast of characters—characters that won’t all be played by Tatiana Maslany.
The official description for Orphan Black: Echoes reads:
Set in the near future, the new Orphan Black takes a deep dive into the exploration of the scientific manipulation of human existence. It follows a group of women as they weave their way into each other’s lives and embark on a thrilling journey, unravelling the mystery of their identity and uncovering a wrenching story of love and betrayal.
Anna Fishko (Pieces of Her, The Society, Fear the Walking Dead) serves as the series creator, writer, showrunner and executive producer with director John Fawcett, the co-creator of the original series. The 10-episode season order will be overseen by the original executive producers David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg.
“I am thrilled to begin this new chapter in the world of Orphan Black. Creating a story that embraces the legacy of the original show has been so gratifying, and I’m excited for audiences to embark on a new journey that explores the big questions of what makes us who we are,” Fishko says.
The series is set to premiere in 2023, six years after the original series wrapped. Tatiana Maslany played numerous, multi-faceted clones of herself in the science fiction thriller series. Over the course of its run, Maslany earned two Emmy nominations and won once for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series. No cast announcements have been made for Echoes.
“Embarking on a new saga of Orphan Black with Anna, our partners at Boat Rocker, and AMC could not be more exciting. For all our dedicated OB fans out there, I am thrilled that we can bring this new chapter to them. Without our fans, this new show certainly wouldn’t exist and for that I am deeply grateful. I can’t wait to ‘follow the crazy science’ for them!” Fawcett says about the new series.
46 Comments
The show got pretty convoluted at the end. Most of the original’s appeal was Tatiana’s performance as a multitude of clones. Without her, the original show doesn’t work.
Well, I got my fingers crossed for them, because we sure as hell weren’t watching Orphan Black for the plot, but the awesome performances by Maslany and her co-stars, who won’t be in this.
We loved the show, even though the plot was overly convoluted and a lot of it didn’t make a lot of sense. But it was still fun.In other news, I’m hoping She-Hulk turns Maslany into the global superstar she deserves to be, because it’s been five years since the show ended. Time’s a-wastin’, Hollywood!
It was fun. The first season was by far the best, I think it got progressively worse but still worth it through the end.
Loved it initially, thought the first few seasons were great and fun. My partner and I realized we didn’t even bother to finish the series though, we drifted away at some point in the last season, just didn’t care anymore. Agreed that I’m looking forward to Tatiana Maslany becoming a bigger star!
I plan to watch those last five or six episodes eventually!
Still the most amazing multi-part actress I’ve ever seen. Nobody has come close to doing it as well as Tatiana.Alison was the best clone. FIGHT ME
Yeah, Alison was my favorite. She had her shit together.
She also had zero hangups about horribly torturing her doughy hubby.
In s1 Alison was my favorite clone. By the end of the series it was Helena. Apparently the actresses that played Alison and Helena didn’t get along
I’m just imagining Tatiana having a diva fight backstage with….herself.I bet she could pull it off too.
She was really the thing that set Orphan Black apart. Without her ability to make each clone feel like a completely different character, the remainder of the show is some relatively ordinary twisty SF hokum. If you like twisty SF hokum (and I do), then it would be fine but probably not the sort of thing you’d get excited about. Maslany’s performances elevated the show into something that you could recommend to your non-SF-fan friends.
Still the most amazing multi-part actress I’ve ever seen. Nobody has come close to doing it as well as Tatiana.Not only did she convincingly portray so many characters, she could even convincingly portray one of the clones pretending to be another clone.
I’m not the most visually observant person in the world, and I went into OB not knowing anything about the plot, but I honestly didn’t realize (1) That they even were clones and (2) It was the same person until they actually said ‘clones’ (I think it was the 2nd or 3rd episode?).That’s how distinct they all looked and had personalities.The best moment of the series is when Krystal (Tatiana) looks disgustedly at Sarah (Tatiana) and refuses to believe that Sarah even resembles her.
“In other news, I’m hoping She-Hulk turns Maslany into the global superstar she deserves to be, because it’s been five years since the show ended. Time’s a-wastin’, Hollywood!”I felt so bad for her when the Brie fanatics took their ire out on Maslany for getting the part over Alison. I love Alison Brie too, but they must be completely unaware that Tatiana has already delivered stupendously in the multiple-role performance. She was an ideal choice for this movie. I think if they gave Orphan Black a spin they’d agree too.
Maslany was in HBO’s Perry Mason.
Oh shit, IMDB has become sentient and is posting on the A.V. Club!
One of the very few “mystery” shows to actually stick the landing. Yes, it got a bit shaky in the filler seasons but it was all worth it in the end.
Yeah, I only kept watching just for Maslany.
If nothing else, it introduced Tatiana Maslany and Kristian Bruun so they could bond over their shared love of Comedy Bang Bang.
No Tatiana Maslany, no freaky lovable Helena, fun Cosima, brittle Alison, spunky Sarah, and smarter than she seems Krystal, no dice The Orphan Black spinoff I wanted would have been Helena and Art opening a food truck specializing in Ukranian-soul food fusion & solving a mystery in a different Toronto neighborhood every week
The Orphan Black follow up I wanted was to see one of the clones totally being a trashy Brit in Ibiza and the surprise at the end being it was Rachel, not Sarah or any of the others and no she’s not plotting anything, she’s decided to toss in the world domination and just let loose and have fun!
It totally fell apart in the last two seasons and the comics and audio series were pretty terrible. I’ll watch any episodes with Maslany in it tho, the woman is incredible.
Orphan Black is a terrific series, despite the fact that it was helmed by two men. I don’t even see it listed on Netflix’s menu; it was a BBC property? The show should be assigned to another streaming service because I’m sure many people would like to see it before committing to future versions. I would like to watch it again because it was just that good.
It wasn’t BBC proper but a co-production between BBC America (which exists in a weird middle ground where they can license both BBC and some non-BBC UK TV shows internationally) and Space (Canadian sci-fi cable channel).It’s streaming on Amazon Prime.
Thank you for the info.; that’s great news and I’ll be enjoying that tonight.
despite the fact that it was helmed by two menYou’re so predictable.
Another county saying the show started off great but fell apart and would have been nothing without Maslany, so, don’t care about this. The male clones, I think, were the beginning of the show’s spiral into incoherence.
SMDH thinking about how they thought the male clones were a good idea
I think the male clones were necessary from a practical standpoint. Without them, there would have been *endless* rounds of “where are the male clones/don’t need ’em for the science to work/but what about the male viewers/don’t need them, either, for the show to work/what do you mean? what do you mean? what do you mean…”
Ari Millen did his best but I think Enver Gjokaj proved it could have worked with Dollhouse and he even has a twin brother who even though not a professional actor did some doubling up for him on a Dollhouse episode when they needed two of them!
I don’t know if it’s his weird name or his almost-but-not-quite looks but Enver Gjokaj is someone I wanted to be in a lot more stuff – he had a similar ability as Tatiana Maslany to play different characters in the same series and make them feel completely separate from one another. He’d be tailor made for a show like Orphan Black.
I’m at least glad they had Enver reprise his Agent Carter character for the final Agents of SHIELD season. He one of the handful of things I really liked about those latter seasons.
Gjokaj has been wasted in so many shows. The role he got stuck with in Agent Carter, yeesh.
At least they were actually able to use that character more effectively on SHIELD. The later seasons have a crap tonne of problems but that was one positive take-away.
Imagine thinking that this of all shows needed yet more characters. They might as well just have held up a sign saying “Hi, we’re totally out of ideas!”
The actor playing the male clone wasn’t nearly as good an actor, and that’s when it got confusing as hell for me. I still need to finish — I’m on season four.
Hard to say whether it’s worth it. The fifth season might not be the weakest but it definitely has the weakest villain.
It’s really weird to see a cast picture without 5 Maslanys all lined up.
Watching Orphan Black for Maslany = yes, please!Watching a non-Maslany Orphan Black spin off for the lore = yikes!
Orphan Black was a great show with my favourite clone being Krystal Goderitch and her being so close and yet so far about what was going on at the same time being introduced in Season 4.The creators originally had a three season plan and they weren’t wrong about being worried that anything longer than this would be dragging the show out too long, though.
characters that won’t all be played by Tatiana Maslany Well then. Won’t be much point. But we’ll have She Hulk, and that should be fun.
o.OI’ll probably check it out because there were other reasons to watch Orphan Black besides the obvious- Mrs. S is my favorite shady mentor type, the body horror could be pretty friggin’ disturbing, and the gay rep was fantastic- but it’s hard to have high expectations without Maslany.
Obligatory “Where are the rest of the actresses from the show in that cast photo?” comment.
If Maslany isn’t in this, what’s the point? Was anyone watching OB and saying “I’m here for all the non-Maslany content”?
Orphan Black was a mess of a show that was barely watched by anyone and entirely carried by Tatiana Maslany being absolutely phenomenal. A spin off that doesn’t have the only positive thing seems like maybe a horrible idea.