A New Twist on a Classic Myth

This summer, AMC+ and Crave unveiled a trailer for their upcoming series, Yaga, at San Diego Comic-Con. Based on the play by Kat Sandler, who serves as writer and showrunner, Yaga reimagines the Slavic witch Baba Yaga in a dark, feminist, and suspenseful way.

In the series, Rapp (played by Noah Reid), a private investigator, arrives in a small coastal town to investigate the disappearance of a young heir to a powerful fishery, Henry Park (played by Hudson Williams). As Rapp delves deeper into the mystery, he finds himself at odds with an apprehensive local detective, Carson (played by Clark Backo), a charismatic university professor with a taste for younger men, Katherine (played by Carrie-Ann Moss), and a labyrinth of enigmatic suspects, secret lives, and ancient magic.

The trailer for Yaga starts with a voiceover from Moss’ Katherine, explaining the myth of Baba Yaga in a luxurious dimly lit living room across from a slightly moist and a little horny, Williams’ Henry. "There are versions of her all over the world. Sometimes she’s an ugly old witch. She lives in a [dilapidated] house on chicken feet. Sometimes she’s a wise woman, an enchantress, a healer. Sometimes she helps a hero on his quest. Sometimes she tests him. Sometimes she kills them. Sometimes she eats them. Sometimes she fucks them. But, she always has a name." Katherine says seductively.

The trailer then cuts to a series of quick shots showcasing the series’ characters, especially Williams, in compromising and dangerous positions, from lustful thrusts and sweaty threesomes to blood sacrifice and errant chicken feathers. The last frame reveals a release date of October 2026.

"This ain’t your mama’s Baba Yaga," quipped Reid in response to the trailer. "Hudson cannot keep his hands off himself. I mean, I don’t blame him." Williams, who couldn’t be at the panel in person, sent a pre-recorded video message, teasing that the show was "a blast and a wild one to film."

Confirming his co-star, Reid stressed Williams’ role is "a wild performance that is scary hot." Moss, who also couldn’t attend in person, shared well wishes for all that wanted to watch the series when it debuts in the Fall.

Other surprises at the panel included another clip that featured Backo’s Carson and Detective Rapp meeting each other for the first time upon being called to seemingly investigate a person seen burning on a makeshift pyre in the woods. The clip also featured another haunting voiceover from Yaga, explaining the mystery that shrouds her lore, alluding perhaps to the show’s mission to dismantle what we know about the witch.

"You say I’m wicked as the night but wise and powerful as the sea. You say I eat naughty children and their bones. You say I’m ugly and lonely and that no one will love me," Yaga cries in the trailer. "No one will love me. Who will love such a beast, such a witch as I am?"

Sandler explained that the show was "a feminist revenge-tinged reimagining of the myth that is sexy, propulsive, vicious, and scary." As to why she baked the dark fairytale into that of a detective narrative, Sandler added: "I think the detective mystery element of it is a really big piece of it. And it comes so much from a pastiche of all of the stuff that I have loved my whole life and that we kind of pulled out of our childhoods like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Cinderella, Grimm Fairytales. But it’s also that the theme of witches is so aligned with [bad behavior and darkness]. So, I think a feminist bent is good for right now, and that maybe we’ve been burning the wrong witches for centuries, and this show is about what would happen if a witch survived long enough to hunt back and tell her own story."