“Everyone’s going to need to bring their pen and notepad,” says Yaga star Clark Backo. “Follow along.”
While it might sound like the actress is describing homework, she’s actually trying to offer a helping hand to viewers of her upcoming show. Backo and her costars, Carrie-Anne Moss and Noah Reid, are urging fans of their new series to pay attention for clues in the premiere episodes. The actors were gathered at the Toronto International Film Festival in mid-September, where the series would go on to have its world premiere.
The eight-episode mystery thriller is based on a play by series creator Kat Sandler, who is writer and showrunner. The show’s trailer, released late last month, ended with what could be the tagline — “Women — we’re angry about everything.”
Yaga reimagines the myth of Baba Yaga, set in a coastal town. Reid’s Rapp, a private investigator, finds himself teaming up with local detective Carson, played by Backo, to investigate the disappearance of Henry Park, played by Heated Rivalry breakout Hudson Williams. Moss leads the cast as Katherine, a professor with “a taste for younger men,” according to the show’s description.
The show is the first half-hour drama to hail from Canadian streamer Crave, the home of last year’s breakout television hit Heated Rivalry. Front Street Pictures and Blink49 Studios produce the series, which will air on AMC+ in the U.S.
As timely as it is evergreen, Yaga tackles female rage in an interesting way, putting forth a “incendiary feminist antihero for our time,” as Sandler put it. Moss, Backo and Reid are quick to highlight the writer’s ability to start conversations.
“I love how good Kat is at bringing up incredibly important human questions,” says Backo. “She obviously has a strong point of view, but she doesn’t answer [the questions]. It’s one of the most important things as a teacher or as a parent or as a lover — to inspire thought but not tell somebody how to think.”
Reid also notes that Sandler’s writing is simply fun to deliver. “It’s punchy in a great way. It has speed written into it,” he says of the script. She writes a lot of words, but there’s a rhythm to them so it doesn’t take up too much time.
Perhaps it’s the playwright background — Moss would likely agree on that. “If you could have been on the set and just seen how passionate Kat is about it,” she says.
“In our industry, I’m finding some of the top people that are doing some of the best work are coming from theater, which is interesting because you can feel that shift happening,” Moss says. “I’ve noticed that in the last couple of jobs that I’ve done, they’ve had playwright women in it at the helm and you really feel that.”
Yaga‘s tone is singular. It’s genre, but it’s still grounded. It’s funny, but it’s dark. “Those shifts exist within our daily life. We shift tones a lot as people,” says Reid.
“What I loved about the challenge and sometimes the gift of getting to do that in this show is that we get to stay a little bit more loose and ready,” he says. “Yes, Kat is writing that way, [but] we’re all in tune with each other.”
The series shot in Victoria, British Columbia, standing in for the show’s small seaside town. The experience brought the actors close together. “I hope people are delighted by our chemistry altogether, as an ensemble cast. I kind of think we killed it,” says Backo.
“We were all, weirdly enough, good people that were having a good time and you don’t always get that,” she says. “It’s a privilege to be on a set that runs smoothly and has people that don’t take themselves too seriously, but take the work just seriously enough.”
Williams, the final member of the main cast quartet, isn’t with them for this conversation. But they do note that the reveal of the actor tackling two roles, Henry and Logan, is a secret they’ve been keeping for a while. It’s one of many they’ve been tasked with gatekeeping.
“We have to keep so many on this show,” says Reid. “It’s actually harder to reveal anything than it is to keep it secret.”
While there’s not too much the actors can say in terms of plot ahead of the show’s debut, there are things to watch out for. Viewers will be surprised by how many clues are in the first two episodes, Backo explains. So get those notebooks out.
Reid also says viewers will be surprised by “the sheer amount of chicken stuff.” (This might be a bit confusing for anyone unfamiliar with the Baba Yaga myth — the character is often described in folklore as living in hut atop chicken legs.)
“A lot of chickens,” Backo says, reaffirming her costar. “And a lot of words.”
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Yaga is set to premiere on AMC+ and Crave on Oct. 23. It airs weekly on Fridays, with a two-part finale set for Nov. 27. Check out all of The Hollywood Reporter’s Yaga coverage here.