BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
A new series called The Other Kingdom features a fairy princess who infiltrates a human high school,
When it comes to princesses in television and film, there isn’t exactly a shortage of figures for young girls to look up to. Role models who go beyond the stereotypical “get the prince” plot, however, are fewer and farther between.
That’s where executive producer Tommy Lynch and his latest Family Channel series, The Other Kingdom, come into play.
Lynch has plenty of experience casting a wilful, heroic light on young women thanks to previous series such as The Secret World of Alex Mack, not to mention decades of experience on tween series such as South of Nowhere, The Troop and Kids Incorporated.
In this latest series, which premieres Friday after an earlier start on Nickelodeon in the U.S., he’s aiming to merge a princess with real world problems of the epic, teenage sort.
Princess Astral (Esther Zynn) is a fairy princess from Athenia. After spying on a cute boy she likes, Tristan (Callan Potter), Astral decides to leave her kingdom for Earth and experience everything a typical high school student would. Unfortunately, once she’s there, she has just 90 days to decide if she wants to leave her fairy roots behind forever, or return home and rule the roost of mythical creatures.
It’s a pretty tall order for a 15-yearold girl with heightened fairy emotions.
“It’s the story of a girl coming of age in a fish-out-of water situation, a new high school,” Lynch says. “The best part is she comes to Earth because she sees a cute boy, but that becomes less important as she becomes her own independent woman to the fairies.
“She’s a little more human (than other princesses). She is magical with powers, but my fairies feel a lot.
“Her emotional register is really strong, which conventionalizes her character a lot. She always has to remember her great quest isn’t being a princess; her great quest is, ‘Am I going to go home and become a queen or am I going to stay here and become a human?’ It’s a great dichotomy.”
As the series unfolds in its halfhour, five-days-a-week format (20 episodes have been ordered to date with the hopes of a four-season run), Lynch aims to move away from the surreal aspect of it all and dig into larger themes such as the merging of environment and technology. He’s also keen to explore something he thinks every kid in the world can relate to: feeling as though they have a big secret.
“Athenia is a fun way to get into another world, but the base of it is the adventure of a young girl in a new environment with this great secret,” Lynch says. “Every kid in my audience feels they have a great secret and so they can see how she deals with hers.”
The producers considered more than 800 young girls for the lead role, but Zynn had the innocence Lynch wanted, along with a quiet strength that sold him on her being able to rule a hypothetical world.
She was one of the finishing touches on a world he originally envisioned while working on the set of Make it Pop in Toronto, at the same location where Degrassi films.
On a February day, he was looking at the indoor garden in an atrium surrounded by snow outside and his first thought was, “I wonder if all the fairies are cold.” Setting the series with a female lead was pretty much a no-brainer for the prolific producer.
“This isn’t a love story, but one of a young girl becoming a strong, teenage woman. My female characters are so good to write,” he says.
“Girls are smarter than boys; I have five brothers, two sisters and four sons, so I have great experience at how dumb boys can be. Girls are smart. And they’re just fun to write for.”
Especially when they also happen to be princesses.