Paint It Black

The Orphan Black story continues with Echoes, a new series set 30 years after the original

- STEVE O'BRIEN

THERE AREN’T MANY TV SHOWS that can boast a following so great that its fans even have a name. Clone Club has been the label for devotees of cult Canadian drama Orphan Black since it made its small screen debut in 2013. The series – about a human clone by the name of Sarah Manning – hoovered up a host of awards during its original five-season, 50-episode run, including a Primetime Emmy and a Peabody.

Now, seven years after that final episode, comes Orphan Black: Echoes, a sequel that, while it’s a distinct series in its own right, also promises to feel comfortingly familiar to old-time Clone Clubbers.

“We wanted to give the fans of the original show something to sink their teeth into,” Echoes showrunner Anna Fishko – a former writer and producer on Fear The Walking Dead – tells Red Alert, “so we’re using some of the characters from the original. We talked a lot about which characters the Clone Club had really latched on to and felt strongly about, and that was very informative in terms of how I shaped the story. At the same time I also wanted people who hadn’t watched all five seasons of the original show not to be lost in the weeds.”