By Brent McKnight | 7 years ago

Orphan Black doesn’t return to our televisions until April 19, when the sci-fi drama kicks off its sophomore season. Not that we’re marking the days off on our calendars or anything, I swear. News about the upcoming plot lines has been scarce, but as we gradually get closer, small bits and pieces begin to emerge from the shadows. Those two recent teasers didn’t tell us much, but we can glean some information from this new photo, and creators John Fawcett and Graeme Manson have opened up a bit more on the subject. There aren’t any Earth-shattering revelations here, but we’re starting to get a clearer picture of what season two is going to look like.

As you can clearly see in this image, season two of Orphan Black is definitely going to see some clone versus clone action. Here we have our hero, Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) battling it out with Rachel, the Neolutionist clone who showed up in the season finale, and is also played by Tatiana Maslany. If nothing else, at least we’re going to be treated to more of the 28-year-old Canadian bouncing back and forth between multiple characters within the same scene. How do you prepare to film a fight scene against yourself?

Watching Maslany pull off all of these distinct personalities without batting an eye is the true pleasure of the show, but lucky for everyone, the story about a bunch of estranged clones is pretty sweet as well. EW, who also debuted this photo, sat down with Fawcett and Manson to try and squeeze some details out of the duo. About this picture, Fawcett says, “Our launching framework for season 2 is really the war between Sarah and Rachel.”

Rachel may not be a good guy, per se, but as we saw last season with Helena, these guys don’t just want to deliver flat, one-note character. What does this mean for the evolution of this latest addition? Fawcett addresses this:

For us, using Helena as an example, it was very interesting to draw a character that began really as one thing — for example, a serial killer — and then through the course of a few episodes become able to add layers and add flesh to the point where you could understand her and be sympathetic to her. So, to me, that was about creating a really dynamic deep interesting character that wasn’t just a cartoon. And I think we feel the same about 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’tjust a heavy. There’s other aspects to her. And that’s been a really fun developing a new girl.

By now we are well aware that no one on Orphan Black is who they seem to be on the surface. Everyone has layers, nuances, and many facets that make up their overall personality, and it sounds like this isn’t going to change any time soon. The duo doesn’t have any plans to rest on their laurels moving forward. Manson says:

Right off the bat we’ve really hit the ground running. We left a lot up in the air, so it’s been a lot of fun figuring out how and when and where those balls land and how they land in unexpected ways. As for Rachel, 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.

So the overarching conspiracy is going to play a prevalent role in season two, but that’s not all that’s in store. Manson and Fawcett promise all manner of twists and turns, a further exploration of Cosima’s mysterious illness, and promises that there will be storylines that stray into body horror territory. Because we weren’t excited enough already for Orphan Black to return to our television sets.



