Wynonna Earp returning to film in Calgary
Season 2 of supernatural western will again be produced in Calgary
Sci-fi fans and the Alberta film and television industry were given reason to rejoice on Saturday, when American network Syfy confirmed the Calgary-based supernatural western Wynonna Earp will be renewed for a second season.
The announcement was made Saturday afternoon at the San Diego Comic Con, where the cast and representatives from Syfy and IDW Entertainment, which coproduces the show and published the original line of comic books, were on hand to greet fans.
“I don’t count any chickens before they hatch,” said co-producer Tom Cox of Calgary’s Seven24 Films, which developed the series for four years before cameras rolled on Season 1 in the fall of 2015.
“We did see good ratings on Syfy and we saw phenomenal socialmedia response that we know Syfy was privy to as well. It wasn’t entirely shocking, but at the same time it’s fantastic news obviously and we’re thrilled.”
Wynonna Earp has attracted a passionate fan base and received no shortage of critical acclaim in its first season, winning praise and a loyal cult following for its action and humour and for introducing a powerful but flawed female protagonist (played by Melanie Scrofano) who battles demons both literally and metaphorically.
The series also made a splash with the LGBT community because of the same-sex romance between Wynonna’s sister Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) and officer Nicole Haught (Katherine Barrell), which has been affectionately, and cleverly, dubbed “WayHaught” by fans.
“It’s interesting, because this is a genre show so you expect the response to around the supernatural elements, around the demons, around all of those pieces that are specific to genre series,” Cox said.
“In fact, what resonated most deeply were the relationships. We certainly got positive feedback on the mythology and the supernatural elements, but the overwhelming response was to our key relationships and to the fact that there was, in Wynonna, such a strong female protagonist, such an irreverent female protagonist and such a real and layered female protagonist.
“It actually caught us off-guard how much of that was the audience response. It’s clear there was a huge yearning for that.”
Season 2 of the series will again be based in Calgary. Production will start in the late fall for a spring debut on Syfy in America.
The first season was only broadcast in Canada on Ontario-based CHCH, and streamed on its website. Details about Canadian broadcasting for Season 2 have not been finalized.
The first season used areas of Calgary, Springbank, Didsbury and Cochrane as locations to tell the story of Earp, a descendent of famed gunslinger Wyatt and victim of a family curse that requires her to battle demons and other supernatural baddies in the strange town of Purgatory.
It also starred Tim Rozon as a resurrected Doc Holliday, Michael Eklund as villain Bobo Del Rey and Shamier Anderson as Agent Dolls, who leads a cross-border crimefighting unit known as the Black Badge Division.
Showrunner Emily Andras, who grew up in Calgary, was brought on board after work on Lost Girls and Killjoys.
While it’s still early on, Cox says the second season will build on the relationships at the core of the series while offering new twists.
“One of the things we will be doing in Season 2 is leaving the country a little bit and moving into the city, taking Wynonna into more urban environments and seeing what Doc does when he bumps more urban environments,” Cox says.
“Without giving anything away, we’re going to broaden our palette a bit and take them places they’ve never been before while maintaining the heart that’s at the core.”