During the recent BBC America TCA press tour panel, the Orphan Black showrunners and stars revealed quite a few juicy tidbits about the upcoming season!
Orphan Black made quite a splash this year at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour. Here’s a quick recap of all of the things that we learned!
Note: There are spoilers below. Read at your own risk!
‘Scarface’ is scary!
Nicknamed “Scarface” by the cast and crew of Orphan Black because of the (you guessed it) extensive scarring on his face, Rudy is the character that Sarah saw through the glass in the season 2 finale of Orphan Black.
Rudy is a militaristic clone with a psychotic side who’s going to pose quite a threat to our favorite sestras. According to Ari Millen (who plays the Project Castor clones), Rudy “likes to get under people’s skin and then he’ll dig, he’ll pick at you, pick at you, and then he’s won.”
BBC America has just recently released the above photo of Rudy, which shows just how crazy and formidable this Project Castor clone is going to be this season. We’re not sure what makes us more afraid of him: his fierce mohawk, the way he wields his gun, or those creepy red X’s over his eyes. On second thought, we’re going to go with the X’s.
The Project Castor clones are self-aware
In other words, the male clones have known that they’re clones since an early age. There’s been a lot of speculation about the Prolethian Mark after the season 2 finale, mostly around the question of his knowledge about Project Castor. It’s now clear that Mark was fully aware of his clone status the whole time.
Speaking to EW, Millen revealed that the male clones “are part of a secret military experiment and they are very regimented and trained to be soldiers. They know Mark was sent undercover to find out what the Prolethians knew, and in the meantime, fell in love and realized that maybe he doesn’t want to be part of this world anymore.”
So when we last saw Mark and Gracie, we were witnessing him trying to run away from Project Castor and live a small, quiet life with the woman he loves. However, as Millen told EW, he’s not going to be able to get away that easily.
There are quite a few new, non-clone characters coming our way
During the TCA press tour, the showrunners teased quite a few new characters for Orphan Black season 3, one of which is apparently called “The Scorpion” who crawls on Helena but the cast and showrunners wouldn’t say any more. Yes, you read that right. The Scorpion is a cast member.
More importantly, the co-creator/director/executive producer for Orphan Black, John Fawcett, spoke briefly about actor James Frain’s season 3 character, Ferdinand. According to Fawcett, Ferdinand is a pretty scary Topside official who is definitely not a friend to the girls. (If you’ll recall, Topside is a large shadow corporation that’s trying to get a jump on the genetic engineering and cloning market so that it can essentially dominate it.)
On the other end of the character spectrum (or so we’re thinking at the moment) is Justin Chatwin’s character Jason Kellerman, a former flame of Alison’s during high school who returns and causes a bit of tension between the Hendrixes.
While they weren’t mentioned much during the panel, Orphan Black season 3 will also feature Kyra Harper as military doctor Dr. Coady, Ksenia Solo of Black Swan fame as Cosima’s new healer-like friend Shay, and Earl Pastko as “Bulldog,” bodyguard to Topside’s Ferdinand.
More Felix!
We’re going to be seeing a lot more of Felix in Orphan Black season 3! Jordan Gavaris (who plays Felix) reportedly previewed a more independent and curious Felix in the upcoming season. He’ll supposedly be doing his own digging and asking his own questions.
He will still be very much a part of the girls’ lives, however. Over the course of the season, his relationship with Alison will grow stronger and he’ll even start to forge a real bond with Cosima.
Other interesting tidbits
As in other kinds of panels, spoilers and previews weren’t the only things discussed at the TCA press panel over the weekend. There were a few fun and interesting tidbits thrown out as well!
When asked which clone she’s recognized as most often, Tatiana Maslany revealed that younger audiences generally see her as Cosima while middle-age audiences call out to her as Alison. Sarah, however, is still the default. She also noted that, interestingly, nobody ever approaches her as Helena.
Later in the panel, someone posed the question of there potentially being more clones than just Maslany’s and Millen’s. Fawcett, however, wouldn’t say a word either way.
An Orphan Black season 3 teaser played at the end of the panel and depicted quite a few buzzworthy moments, including a Paul/Helena scene and a Cal/Sarah kiss (both of which we’re totally here for). Most interestingly was someone who looked like a new (undercover) female clone but who also sounded a lot like a clone we already love when she said “Holy doo doo.”
That’s right! It looks like everyone’s favorite soccer mom is striking out solo and doing a bit of investigating on her own. We can’t wait to see where that leads! We can’t wait to see that teaser once it’s released to the general public.
For more interesting tidbits from the Orphan Black TCA panel, check out SpoilerTv’s tweet compilation of the event!
Orphan Black season 3 premieres April 18th on BBC America.