Among the fun memories she had as a first-time showrunner, Anna Fishko counts learning the details of what it takes to film a scene that shows her series star, Krysten Ritter, emerging from a vat of pink goo.
“They brought me six sample bottles of different roses. [and] “We would have a whole meeting about what color pink we think it should be,” says Fishko, creator and executive producer of “Orphan Black: Echoes.” “I learned a lot about how much a giant tank full of goo weighs. And how long does it take to heat the substance if you are going to put a person in it.” (Six hours, for those wondering).
Set primarily in 2052, “Orphan Black: Echoes,” premiering Sunday at 10:05 p.m. Pacific on AMC and BBC America and streaming on AMC+, stars Krysten Ritter as Lucy, a woman who one day finds herself He wakes up with no memories of his past. After stumbling upon a vat of a mysterious pink substance, she discovers that it was printed in a high-tech laboratory.
“It takes a lot of magic to create those moments,” says Ritter, who also serves as an executive producer on the series, of her fine scene featured in the show's promotional materials. “There was a lot of preparation [and] many conversations about it. A lot of technical stuff to go through…they put a 70 pound belt around my waist to hold me down. But it was fun and created a cool image.”
Krysten Ritter, who plays Lucy in “Orphan Black: Echoes.”
(Jennifer McCord / for The Times)
“Echoes” takes place in the world presented in “Orphan Black,” the acclaimed science fiction series in which Tatiana Maslany played more than 14 different clones throughout its five seasons that concluded in 2017. While certain details establish a connection, Between the two shows, “Echoes” is less a copy of the original than a complement that further interrogates similar themes around humanity and identity.
Fishko, who previously wrote on shows like “Pieces of Her,” “The Society” and “Fear the Walking Dead,” says that while AMC and Boat Rocker were interested in revisiting the world of “Orphan Black,” “ “I very specifically didn’t want to do the same thing again.”
“They didn't want to make a show about a person who turns out to have a bunch of biological clones of themselves at the same age,” he says, citing the technical challenges of accomplishing the feat, as well as the inevitable and impossible. comparisons it would invite. “I felt like if we tried to do the exact same thing again, it would never turn out quite right.”
Instead, Fishko leaned into “Orphan Black”’s broader themes around identity, finding family, brotherhood and “the ways science makes us ask big questions about our lives as it progresses.” The original series saw her with her husband, a former philosophy professor whose area of interest was personal identity. She was also able to share ideas with John Fawcett, co-creator of the original “Orphan Black” film, who served as executive producer and director of “Echoes.”
“We talked and thought a lot about what people loved about the original show,” Fishko says. “Why they loved it, what characters were important to them and that sense of fun. “I tend to be a pretty serious dramatic writer, and it was a challenge for me, in a good way, to try to find some humor and some levity and do things a little bigger than what I naturally and instinctively might have done.”
Lucy (Krysten Ritter) and Charlie (Zariella Langford-Haughton) in “Orphan Black: Echoes.”
(Sophie Giraud/AMC)
Fishko wanted to make sure “Echoes” was as accessible to viewers new to “Orphan Black” as it is to the franchise's devoted fan base, the #CloneClub. The show focuses on a completely new mystery and cloning project, so no prior knowledge of the original series is required, but there are nuances and references that fans will pick up on.
For Ritter, who is no stranger to joining franchises with established fans after starring in Marvel's “Jessica Jones,” part of the appeal of “Echoes” is that the story and series stand on their own while also being part of a broader universe.
After reading the script for the first episode, “I really appreciated everything my character was able to do,” Ritter says. “There were deeply emotional themes, a sort of 'Bourne Identity' thing, sci-fi stuff on the fly, a fight sequence and that beautiful relationship with Lucy's stepdaughter,” Charlie (Zariella Langford-Haughton). Lucy also presented an intriguing challenge for her as an actress because she had no backstory.
Fishko describes Lucy as a survivor.
“She's someone who had to make her way in the world without support or resources and figure everything out from scratch,” Fishko says. Lucy makes a life and finds love, forging “connections… that gave her something to lose.”
In “Echoes” we also see Lucy cross paths with teenager Jules (Amanda Fix) and a scientist (Keeley Hawes) whose identity is technically secret but who plays a key role in the central mystery.
What Fishko can say about Hawes' scientist is that she is “a complicated character with a complicated history.”
“I was very interested in taking the characters into a kind of gray area that people could think about,” Fishko says. “I feel like a lot of times in these kinds of stories you end up with good guys and bad guys, and there's not always a lot of subtlety in that.”
“I was very interested in taking the characters into a kind of gray area that people could think about,” Anna Fishko says of “Orphan Black: Echoes.”
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
As much as action and scientific intrigue drive the story, “Echoes” is about relationships. Learning “how all the women intertwine throughout” the show with different dynamics and “having scenes with all these other women was really exciting for me,” Ritter says.
Lucy is “trying to figure out who she is, where she fits in the world and falls in love with people,” he adds, describing “Echoes” as “a story of identity and love.” Lucy protects those she cares for and, throughout the episodes, she “steps toward a greater purpose.”
“Connection and relationships are really important on the show,” Fishko says. “'Do those things make us who we are?' It's something I thought about a lot. Are you the relationships you have? Do they define you? And also, is it possible to recreate them or is it their accumulated experience that defines the relationship?
The series highlights both family and romantic love. One romance in particular echoes a fan-favorite relationship from the original “Orphan Black” and gets the spotlight in the new show's fifth episode, written by Fishko. (Hint: It involves doing mad science.)
“I'm a very cheesy romantic at heart and so I had to find my secret spot for a sweet love story,” says Fishko. “I was very nervous about how the studio and the network would respond because ultimately it develops slowly. [compared to the other episodes]But everyone loved it.”
Equally important in “Echoes” is the theme of motherhood. Ritter was particularly drawn to the relationship between Lucy and Charlie, the deaf teenage daughter of Lucy's boyfriend Jack (Avan Jogia).
“I responded to the relationship with Charlie because I'm a mother myself,” Ritter says, noting that this was the first time she was able to explore that bond on screen since she took on motherhood herself. Ritter learned sign language for the role (as well as some Spanish).
Krysten Ritter was drawn to Lucy's different relationship dynamics in “Orphan Black: Echoes.”
(Jennifer McCord / for The Times)
Coincidentally, Fishko, who remembers releasing “Orphan Black: Echoes” while pregnant with her second child, compares the showrunning experience to parenthood.
“I knew it was going to be a great job because I've worked in television long enough to know that,” Fishko says. “But it's like having kids, where everyone tells you it's going to be hard but you don't really understand what they're talking about until you have them.”
And, like being a parent, “having a team of people that you can really trust and who are there to support you through all of this is amazing,” she says.
Like the original series, “Orphan Black: Echoes” feels timely. Female agency and bodily autonomy have once again become political battlefronts, and debates around artificial intelligence have sparked anxiety about the future and deeper questions about humanity. Even the bioprinting technology used for cloning in the show, Fishko says, is not as extravagant as some might think.
While there has been no official word on whether “Orphan Black: Echoes” will continue beyond a first season, Fishko remains hopeful.
“I'm very motivated to tell women's stories,” she says, pointing to the political climate and her experiences since becoming a mother. “Be a mother [and] understanding how that impacts your life in a way that I don't think I ever imagined before having them. Being married and what that entails. I’m interested in trying to find a way to talk about those things that is still entertaining and not like a lecture.”
