'Salem' EP Says WGN Drama is Grounded in Reality, Less 'Harry Potter'
"Our take on the Salem Witch Trials is that witches were real and they were running the trials, that's what our show is," showrunner Brannon Braga says of the network's first scripted drama.
WGN America -- fresh off green lighting a Ten Commandments miniseries -- debuted Salem, its first scripted series Sunday at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour.The series stars Nikita's Shane West, Arrow's Seth Gabel and Janet Montgomery and explores the dark, supernatural truth hiding behind the veil of this ignominious period in American history. The witches featured are real, but they are not who or what they seem. The series, centered on an epic romance wrapped around an explosive revelation, delivers a bold new vision of Salem -- and an even bolder new vision of witches.
"Our take on the Salem Witch Trials is that witches were real and they were running the trials, that's what our show is," showrunner Brannon Braga (Terra Nova) told reporters. "The show comes from transcripts of the witch trials. Good records were kept of the things people were accused of. … Our show is about witches; there are no vampires or werewolves. We are hoping our form of magic is different; it's more grounded in the kind of things people claimed happened at the time. It's less Harry Potter and more grounded in nature."
Gabel, who portrays Cotton Mather, the man charged with overseeing the witch hunts, says the series explores perception and questions fact vs. fiction. "How do we know that the stories we were told about history are true? It questions those facts and perceptions and at the same time gives you an access for understanding that the truth may be metaphorical," he said. "You can experience what it was like to be in Salem and live there. If you believe in God and the devil, how does that change your mindset?"
Producers promised creepy scenes that viewers have not seen before on TV -- including a frog coming from someone's throat which Braga described as a coma-inducing agent that witches use to keep people in control. The EP stressed that the series is grounded in history, with many of the characters featured in Salem based on real people.
"This is not just one of the worst moments in American history, it's the worst and the first and it sets the tone of what will happen hundreds of years later," Braga said, calling the series historically accurate in a lot of ways. "We asked ourselves why it keeps happening."
Gabel noted that the series provides an "illustrated version" of the Salem Witch Trials more than the history books do, while exec producer Adam Simon noted that scenes in Salem that many people will think didn't actually happen are the ones most likely to have occurred during the 1700s.
Salem will premiere Sunday, April 20 on WGN America.
First Cast Photos from WGN America's Salem
By Debi Moore
We've seen a few spooky teasers for WGN America's upcoming witches' brew known as "Salem," and now we have the first look at cast members Shane West and Ashley Madekwe in character as war veteran John Alden and a powerful witch’s accomplice, respectively. “Salem,” slated to premiere in spring 2014, explores what really fueled the town's infamous witch trials and dares to uncover the dark, supernatural truth behind them.
Created, executive produced, and written by award-winning writer/producer Brannon Braga ("24," "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Voyager," and "Enterprise") and Adam Simon (The Haunting in Connecticut), “Salem” launches WGN America’s strategy to become a dedicated purveyor of innovative scripted fare.
“Salem” stars Shane West (“Nikita,” “ER”) as handsome, hardened war veteran John Alden; Janet Montgomery (“Human Target,” “Made in Jersey”) as the ruthless but vulnerable Mary Sibley, Salem’s most powerful enchantress – and Alden’s onetime love interest; Seth Gabel (“Fringe”) as local aristocrat Cotton Mather who fans the flames of Salem’s witch hunt; Ashley Madekwe (“Revenge”) as Mary’s mysterious, carnal accomplice; Xander Berkeley (“Nikita,” “The Mentalist”) as chief politician Magistrate Hale; Tamzin Merchant (Jane Eyre) as the forthright Anne Hale, an artist with a perilous attraction to Alden; and Elise Eberle (The Astronaut Farmer) as the mysteriously afflicted Mercy Lewis.
In “Salem” witches are real, but they are not who or what they seem. The show, which centers on an epic romance wrapped around this explosive revelation, delivers a bold new vision of Salem – and an even bolder new vision of witches.
WGN's 'Salem' Promises A Firm Hold in the Reality and Brutality of Witches
The newest addition to horror television is WGN America’s Salem. Set during the witch trials of the 1600s, Salem premiered a long-form trailer at the Television Critics Association conference. After watching the footage, I am all-in. This is not going to be a mushy modern-day witch show with ties to the Salem Witch Trials; this is not a romance that is aided by a little nose-wiggle and a sprinkle of fairy dust. This is looks brutal.
Executive producer Brannon Braga explains that in their version of the witch trials, witches themselves are doing the witch hunting, and are running the trials for reasons that will become apparent. (So I am guessing it goes deeper than witches trying to throw others off the scent.)
Executive producer Adam Simon asserts that, while we will see other supernatural entities besides just witches, there will not be an “endless line of supernatural creatures.” “We want to be true to the people of the time, and the things that they believed,” he says, which seems an interesting way to present a show like this. The Salem Witch Trials didhappen; there is no denying that. And while the women who were executed during that time were not witches, the belief in witchcraft was certainly a common and deep fear.
Of course, this led to some offended critics in the room. There seemed to be a pervasive sense among some of them that this was going to be an exploitative white-washing of history, ignoring the real, underlying problems of the time: religious fervor, political rhetoric, and pervasive misogyny. While these themes were certainly rampant at the time, the mass hysteria could not have gripped the colony like it had without a true fear of witchcraft. Even so, as I was leaving the conference room, I heard one (male) journalist grumble about how the producers would next blame slavery on demon possession.
Braga, Simon, and the cast defended the show strongly. "We are not endorsing, exploiting, or belittling any of the social issues that were going on at the time. This is just an alternate history,” says Braga. “A lot is derived from actual trial transcripts,” which were all well-documented. “There won’t be vampires or werewolves. Our form of magic is more grounded in what people claimed happen at the time.”
Janet Montgomery will play the female lead Mary Sibley, a woman who is a Puritan, “but not really a Puritan,” who faces a loss of innocence when confronted by the consequences of choices she made in the past. “No one wants to see a woman on TV dealing drugs like Walter White,” Montgomery says, referring to Breaking Bad’s anti-hero, and how her character will be unlike any female character on television. “Mary does some really horrific things,” she confides, while Braga suggests that “Mary is both the hero and the villain.” “She is a woman in trouble who is causing trouble.”
Seth Gabel plays Cotton Mather, the man who historically is seen as the driving influence behind the real witch trials. “The show is so dynamic; nothing is distinctly good or evil,” he explains. “My character is charged with heading the witch hunt. I am a scientist, a theologian, but I am a hypocrite - I go to brothels at night (and quite enjoy myself) then go to church the next day. Every character has something good in them, but also has something to hide.”
Perhaps the most amazing part of what we saw in the seven-minute trailer was, well, Salem, as it looked in 1692. Braga explains that they had to build Salem. “This was not a period where we could easily rent sets or costumes. We had to find a huge parcel of land where we could build Salem.” They found that land in Shreveport, Louisiana, and built up a functional town with real buildings. “We could live there,” Montgomery remarks, while Gabel adds that “75% of the show is lit with real fire.”
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