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ORPHAN BLACK Cast Teases Season 4, Delphine, and Castor’s Latest

Note: This post contains spoilers for BBC America’s Orphan Black.

With Orphan Black returning for its fourth season on April 14, we had a ton of questions for the cast and showrunners during their press interviews at WonderCon. While Tatiana Maslany—who stars as Sarah Manning and her cohort of clones—wasn’t at the convention, we learned a great deal about what’s in store for the Clone Club from creators Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, and cast members Jordan Gavaris (Felix), Kristian Bruun (Donnie), and Kevin Hanchard (Art).

Here's that new mural we were talking about in the last photo. See what we mean about where Felix's head is at?

Though the upcoming season is a return to form of sorts for Sarah as she tracks down an ally tied to Beth, several of her closest confidants will be treading unfamiliar territory. Felix, for instance, is in a tough spot after the revelation that Sarah and Kira are tied to Siobhan, and her mother Kendall, by blood.

“Where we find Felix at the top of this season is digesting what this means for him” Gavaris explained. “A big part of his bond with Sarah hinges on the fact that they’re both orphans, and that’s been taken away from him. Sarah’s life has grown increasingly complex and she’s less concerned with Felix because she’s got bigger fish to fry.”

But, that doesn’t mean Felix won’t have anyone to turn to. According to Gavaris, Felix is going to be spending more time with some of the other clones (including Krystal (!!)) as well as “somebody who’s not one of the sisters.” We’ll let that one sink in. We’ll also be learning more about his character’s backstory, and see him “evolve” in season 4.

Though he admits to wanting to see Fee in a relationship because he “really wanted that for him” as a character, he’s come to the realization that Felix doesn’t need a traditional relationship to make him happy. “I think if he was to get a love interest, what we might be saying with that is that to be a healthy, functional person, you’d have to have a traditional, borderline heteronormative relationship, and I just think that’s not true.”

He continued, “I think there’s many ways to be a happy person without necessarily having a relationship. Everything that he’s told me about who he is thus far leads me to believe that he’s not interested in a relationship right now. He gets everything he needs from Sarah—or he did. Where he’s getting that intimacy now is anybody’s guess.”

Helena (TATIANA MASLANY) and Donnie (Krisitan Bruun)

As for Donnie, Bruun reveals that we’re “definitely going to see Donnie paired up with new clones that we haven’t seen him interact with before.” To be honest all we really want to see is Donnie hanging out with pregnant Helena. After watching them bond towards the end of season 3, we were pretty dang excited when Bruun confirmed that the fun continues next season. “She’s such a strange roommate; she’s very pregnant, always hungry, and kind of crazy.”

After seeing some of the promo images, it looks like Helena will be playing around in Alison’s closet again, which after working with Tatiana as Alison for so long, was a weird experience for Bruun. “After working with Alison, it was so strange to see Tat as Helena. Of course I’d seen her on the show, but I’d never worked with Helena before. I didn’t have to do much acting with the ‘you look just like my wife but you’re not my wife’ thing.

He continued, “It’s there because, as an actor, I was thrown by how incredible Tat is at embodying the characters in movement, speech, and everything. She does such great work. Improving with Helena was like working with a completely different actor because Tatiana goes so in depth with how she plays them. It would really throw me at first.”

I know what you’re thinking: please let there be an awesome Donnie/Helena dance scene. PLEASE. Though I don’t know whether that will ever come to fruition, Bruun admits that it would be hard to top the twerking from season three. But, there’s certainly still fun to be had. “We’ll be seeing more physical stuff with Donnie. There’s more hijinks going on in the suburbs—there always is. I don’t think the fans will be disappointed.”

As for whether Bubbles will play a role in season 4, Bruun notes that it will be there but in a smaller capacity. “Last season Bubbles was our pillfront. It’s still our business, and a source of income for us, but we also have a ton of cash we’re sitting on from the Portuguese mafia. Last season was really dangerous for our family. All we want is a normal family life again.”

We're definitely going to dive more into Art's (KEVIN HANCHARD) life this season, and this photo of him with Maya (AVA ARRINDELL) may point to all of that. Who is she? And how is she related to Art? A niece, perhaps? Could Art have a secret DAUGHTER? That feels wildly unlikely but hey: this is Orphan Black.

Art will also be inching into the spotlight this season. Hanchard explained, “Art has sort of been on the periphery as far as the whole conspiracy and the mystery is concerned. People have sort of wondered what’s making this guy tick; why not put it all to the side and be a detective and live your life?”

He continued, “But he had this relationship with Beth; there’s something special about that cop relationship that I’ve learned more about as I worked on the show. When Sarah comes back, he’s sort of thrust into this mystery and there’s a dogged determination about him that just won’t let it go. There are a lot of situations he ends up in that you just wouldn’t expect.”

From what we’ve seen (including the image above) it looks like we’ll be learning more about Art’s back story, and how he fits in now that he’s officially on #TeamCloneClub—especially now that Sarah is investigating and potentially teaming up with one of Beth’s allies.

“Season 4 is about going back to the beginning in order to move forward. In season 4 it feels like Sarah is functioning off her back foot again. For her, she doesn’t know who the bad guys are. She’s set adrift in this world of Neolution, and it’s kind of a frightening revisit,” said Fawcett.

On top of that, it sounds like Delphine’s “death” will be looming over us for a while. As Manson pointed out, “it was a big part of the cliffhanger of that season.  It’s a huge part of the mystery of season four.” Though he didn’t give a timeline for when we’ll find out the truth about what really happened, it definitely sounds like it’s going to be a bombshell for the series.

Rudy (ARI MILLEN)

Fawcett added, “It’s something that we knew was going to be a big part of the fabric of season four. There’s a lot of mystery around what we saw in season three for the various characters. Cosima is in a place where she’s having difficulty moving forward because she doesn’t have the answers.”

“Helena with a baby bump is also pretty awesome.” Manson said. “Yeah we’ve been dying to see that,” added Fawcett. The good news is, we’ll be getting to see a fair amount of Helena’s pregnancy this season. “We’ll leave it a mystery on how far that goes,”  teased Fawcett.

While the show runners remained tight lipped about new clones—aside from the Castor clone we’ll get to in a minute—they did elaborate a bit more on M.K.’s connection to Beth’s past. “M.K. is a mysterious figure from Beth’s past. She was sort of an ally/information source for Beth. She is a very mysterious person with a lot of information that will help us this season,” said Fawcett.

“She comes from Beth’s world, so she has some answers there,” added Manson

Also, SPOILER: there’s going to be a new Castor clone this season!  “Ari is coming back. I think it’s safe to say that we will be meeting a new Ari clone this year. That will be very surprising to people, I think.”

Well there you have you have it, sestras. If that’s not enough information to spark some theories, we don’t know what is! Are you excited for Orphan Black‘s return on April 14? Let us know in the comments, or reach out to me on Twitter: @Samantha_Sofka!

Image Credit: BBC America

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