Hello Fellow Folklore Fans,
I am thrilled to bring you our San Diego Comic-Con 2026 Press Conference interview with the cast and creator/writer of the new AMC+ series Yaga conducted on Thursday July 23, 2026. Unfortunately no video was allowed, however, the majority of the Press Conference audio is included above for your listening pleasure.
I must admit, when I first heard that Kat Sandler‘s 2019 Yaga was being adapted into a television series, I got a little giddy because Baba Yaga is not just a spooky story to me. I grew up with her in my head because of my Slavic parents, and she was always that figure you were never quite sure about. Was she the witch who would cook you in her oven, or the wise older woman in the woods who would help the hero if they were brave and polite enough to ask?
As it turns out, the answer is both, and that is exactly what makes Yaga, premiering October 23 on Crave in Canada and AMC+ in the United States, one of the shows I am most excited about this fall.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the panel because of other commitments, but from what I heard, it was a smash success. Sadly, Carrie-Anne Moss, who plays Katherine, wasn’t there in person but sent a video message introducing a teaser trailer. Hudson Williams wasn’t there either, but he also sent a video message saying, “Yaga was a blast and a wild one to film.” Included below Ms Moss did do an exclusive interview recently with AMC Plus.
Yaga is a fairy tale dressed up as a detective story. Here’s what the story is about, based on my research: Rapp (Noah Reid), a private investigator, arrives in a small coastal town to investigate the disappearance of Henry Park (Hudson Williams), the young heir to a powerful commercial fishery. Almost immediately, Rapp clashes with Carson (Clark Backo), a wary local detective, and Katherine (Carrie-Anne Moss), a charismatic university professor.
Add a town full of enigmatic suspects, secret lives, and a touch of ancient magic, and you have a mystery that is anything but ordinary. Some call it a “crazy fairy tale dressed up like a detective series,” and honestly, I cannot think of a better way to put it.
Two of my favorite character actresses are in the cast: Sheila McCarthy and Megan Follows of Anne of Green Gables, a series that was monumental to me growing up. Although not at the Press Room, Stargate series admirers are excited that Yaga feature Patrick Gilmore, Sarah Strange, Katherine Isabelle and Hiro Kanagawa as guest stars.
What I love about this approach is how freely it blends genres. It weaves together the grit of a crime procedural, the eeriness of folklore, and the wonder of fantasy into a single story. Told as a tight, eight-episode, half-hour series, it leaves no room for filler. Every scene must earn its place, which I find refreshing in an era when so many shows stretch a two-hour story across ten hours. The creative team also deliberately wove motifs and Easter eggs throughout the series to enrich the narrative. As someone who grew up hearing these tales, I already know I’ll watch every episode twice: once for the story and once to hunt for the little nods hidden in the background. If you know your Slavic folklore, keep your eyes peeled. If you don’t, you’re in for a treat; these details add layers that reward you the deeper you dig.
Yaga is reclaiming the myth of what a “witch” is. At its heart, Yaga reclaims female narratives through complex, unconventional characters. These women aren’t written to be liked. They are written to be real, and real people are messy, contradictory, and sometimes downright dangerous. Kat Sandler says our fascination with witches stems from a desire to reclaim the women unjustly labeled as witches throughout history, and that idea runs through the entire series.
One of my favorite things in the world is folklore and the supernatural, and the mysterious world of witchcraft. The misunderstanding and prejudice that witchcraft or witches have endured over the centuries is exactly why I am excited to see this series.
Think about who was branded a witch for centuries. Often, it was healers, midwives, women who knew their herbs, and women who lived on their own terms, without a husband or anyone’s permission. Their independence made people nervous, and “witch” became the easiest label to slap on anything a community did not understand or could not control. Yaga challenges that historical perception head-on, asking us to look again at the woman in the woods and consider that she was never the monster we were told she was. That said, the show does not swing to the opposite extreme and make her a saint. One of its most compelling themes is the duality of light and dark that lives within each of us. Baba Yaga has always embodied that duality. She can help you or harm you, depending on who you are and how you come to her door. I appreciate that the series honors ambiguity rather than smoothing it away, because that is what makes these characters feel so human.
I also love that the cast is entirely Canadian. It’s rare to see so many Canadian actors in a fully Canadian series. It showcases Canadian talent. The series is filmed in British Columbia (including Victoria) and is co-directed by David Frazee and Rachel Talalay. It began as a play at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre and is now heading to audiences worldwide, with international partners picking it up. Writing a series from a theatre piece is not the norm. Usually, a film becomes a play or musical, so seeing the opposite is wonderful, especially since I am a huge advocate for theatre in general. That is no small feat.
What strikes me most is how bold the storytelling is. It would have been easy to play it safe and make a straightforward murder mystery with a spooky coat of paint. Instead, the team took real risks with tone, genre, and character, and that is exactly the kind of storytelling we need more of. Some of the most memorable stories come from creators willing to take a chance on something strange and specific, and Yaga does both in the best way.
Because Yaga began on stage, there is a fascinating balance between its theatrical history and the intimacy of film and television. On stage, a performance must reach the back row. On screen, the camera is right there, catching every flicker of an eye and every breath. The challenge is to keep the theater’s boldness and energy while trusting that the smallest moment can carry enormous weight in a close-up. From the previews I have seen so far, the series pulls that off beautifully. I’ve said countless times that the camera picks up everything, every nuance, glance, and blink. The characters can’t hide on screen but can on stage.
I was also drawn to how the performers approached their characters, trusting their intuition and personal research to shape who they are. This cast has the freedom that comes from moving beyond the need for audience approval and focusing instead on authentic action. So often we expect every character, especially every woman, to explain herself and earn our sympathy. Sometimes the more interesting choice is to let her be who she is and let us sit with it.
One of the things I find most refreshing about Yaga is that it highlights the sexual agency of women over thirty on screen. Katherine is a confident, charismatic professor with a taste for younger men, and the show does not treat that as a punchline or a cautionary tale. For far too long, Hollywood has treated women as if they stop having desires or being worth watching once they pass a certain age. Seeing a woman own her choices without apology feels long overdue, and I hope it opens the door to many more stories like it.
The series also examines how family legacy is passed down, including the behaviors we inherit whether we want them or not. This one hit close to home for me. My parents passed down the stories they heard from their parents and grandparents, including those about Baba Yaga, and with them came habits, beliefs, and ways of seeing the world. Kat points out that every culture has its own version of Yaga, told differently yet sharing the same themes across nations. Yaga reframes female lineage as a central, powerful element of the story. It is not just about what mothers and grandmothers leave behind; it is about the strength, the secrets, and sometimes the burdens that travel from one generation of women to the next.
I’ve covered film and television for a long time, and it is not every day that a series feels this personal to me. Yaga takes a figure I have known my whole life and invites a new audience to see her, and women like her, in a completely different light. It is spooky, smart, sexy, and unapologetically bold, and it arrives just in time for spooky season, my favorite time of year.
Yaga premieres with two episodes on Friday, October 23, and then airs a new episode every Friday after that on Crave Canada and AMC+ in the United States. So, grab a cup of tea, lock your doors, and keep an eye out for a hut on chicken legs! In closing, although we could not attend New York Comic-Con this year, we include the full NYCC panel below courtesy of Hunter Williams Media for your enjoyment.
Thanks to Kenn for audio, video and image embedding for my feature article and thank you for visiting WormholeRiders News Agency. We will be back in the future with additional posts about our Team WHR adventures at San Diego Comic-Con 2026!
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Until next time,
Regards,