AMC+ is getting in the Hudson Williams business. In a competitive situation, the AMC platform has nabbed the exclusive U.S. streaming rights to Crave‘s Yaga, starring Hudson in his first role following the breakout success of another series he has for Canadian streamer Crave, global phenom Heated Rivalry.
Hudson stars alongside Carrie-Anne Moss in the eight-episode Yaga, which will debut on AMC+ later this year, ahead of Hudson’s return for Season 2 of Heated Rivalry alongside co-lead Connor Storrie. The announcement was made today at AMC Global Media’s Upfront Content Showcase.
Based on the play by Kat Sandler, who serves as writer and showrunner, Yaga reimagines the Slavic folk tale of Baba Yaga, a witch living in a hut on chicken legs, as a contemporary mystery thriller.
It follows Rapp (Noah Reid), a private investigator who arrives in a small coastal town to investigate the disappearance of a young heir to a powerful fishery, Henry Park (Williams). He finds himself at odds with an apprehensive local detective, Carson (Clark Backo), a charismatic university professor with a taste for younger men, Katherine (Moss), and a labyrinth of enigmatic suspects, secret lives, and ancient magic.
Also starring are Sheila McCarthy, Megan Follows, Ezra Franky, Patrick Gilmore, Katharine Isabelle, Hiro Kanagawa, Emilija Baranac, Georgia Acken, Anisa Harris and Sam Krochmal.
“Yaga is the kind of bold, genre-bending storytelling that we look for on AMC+ to complement our core franchises and super-serve our passionate and discerning fanbases,” said Courtney Thomasma, EVP of Linear & Streaming Products for AMC Global Media. “Kat Sandler’s unique creative vision brings a fresh twist to the classic whodunit – weaving together elements of witchcraft, horror and mystery to deliver a captivating, character-driven story that viewers won’t want to miss.”
It may be a little surprising that, with the heat coming off Heated Rivalry that has followed Hudson and Storrie onto new projects they have taken on since, Yaga was not snatched by a larger U.S. streamer. (Heated Rivalry streams on HBO Max in the U.S. and a few other territories.) AMC was reportedly aggressive to add Yaga to its existing slate of series set in the world of witchcraft, including A Discovery of Witches, starring Teresa Palmer and Matthew Goode, Sanctuary: A Witches Tale, based on the novel by V.V. James, and Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, starring Alexandra Daddario.
Yaga is produced by Blink49 Studios and Front Street Pictures in partnership with Crave, co-directors are David Frazee and Rachel Talalay. The series is executive produced by Mackenzie Donaldson, Andrew Miller and Moss and produced by Charles Cooper. The series is distributed globally by Sphere Abacus, a Bell Media company.