Orphan Black is currently filming its second season, and BBC America has released the first still!
With a bunch of shows beginning their winter hiatuses, it only makes sense that BBC America would use this time to start pushing its most successful original drama.
Take a look at the still, which depicts Sarah and Rachel at odds with one another for the first and definitely not last time.
John Fawcett and Graeme Manson, the show’s creators, spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the shot and point out that since Rachel essentially launched this war, this is one of Sarah’s retaliations against her. Fawcett adds, “Our launching framework for season 2 is really the war between Sarah and Rachel.”
Fawcett also mentions that there’s a lot more to Rachel than meets the eye. When creating Helena for last season, they liked that she started out as a serial killer but then became so developed and layered that the audience starts to sympathize. The same will likely happen with Rachel. “I think you could probably tell from the end of season 1 that Rachel’s got a little bit of heavy to her. And I think what’s interesting to us is that we’re having fun creating a new character this season who isn’t just a heavy. There’s other aspects to her. And that’s been a really fun developing a new girl.”
“Even as a villain, Rachel is going to hold a lot of surprises for us. She’s been a really fun nemesis for Sarah,” Fawcett adds.
Rachel is also going to play an important part when it comes to Neolution and how we’ll learn more about it and the clones’ origins. Manson states, “We did leave last season knowing that Rachel was a child of Neolution, therefore much connected to the origins of the experiment. So I think Rachel is going to help to open a window for us and we’re going to begin to understand a lot more about the conspiracy.”
We’re excited to figure out how Rachel plays into the equation and what her part in the origin story will be, but a more pressing matter on our mind is Cosima! When we last left our sexiest clone she’d just started getting the same sickness that Katja (the German) had before she was killed. A big part of the mystery of season 2 will be whether Cosima will survive this, and Manson and Fawcett acknowledge this.
Fawcett explains, “[Cosima’s illness] is a very pressing bit of drama that is not just straight ahead. It’s got a lot of mystery to it. It’s got a lot of twists and turns to it and it is thematically a big part of season 2 also.”
Finally, one of the biggest questions for season two was whether it’ll bring us some new clones, and the answer is (obviously) yes!
“We are really excited about doing that. We want to do it in a way that is unexpected. We want to do it at a time that’s unexpected. But it is obviously something that we talk about a lot. And it’s part of the fun of making Orphan Black and making a show about clones is that we can be having those discussions. We have some surprises in store,” Fawcett teases.
Orphan Black season 2 will premiere April 19 on BBC America, and to a much bigger fan base. With the show now airing in the U.K., France and Italy, millions of more fans will be tuning in to the show than last year, and we can’t wait for what Fawcett and Manson have in store for us!