By Nikita Francois
At San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, Yaga panelists Kat Sandler (showrunner/creator), Clark Backo (Carson), and Noah Reid (Rapp) led a fun and engaging first look at the AMC+ limited series, including a teaser trailer. The show is based on a play by Sandler and explores the Baba Yaga story.
Filming for Yaga took place on location in Victoria, British Columbia, which is apparently known for some creepy happenings. Backo said there were “so many coincidences.”
This was followed by a surprise video message from star Carrie-Anne Moss (Katherine), who introduced the teaser. A video message from Hudson Williams (Henry) followed, in which he remarked that he’s never been to SDCC. He said Yaga was “a blast, sort of a wild one to film.”
The panelists then went on to discuss female empowerment while aging, and screened a quick look at one of the scenes from the show.
After the Yaga panel, The Beat spoke with Sandler, Back, and Reid in a press roundtable. Read the full conversation below.
Nikita Francois for The Beat: Clark, you mentioned during the panel that you read the play before reading the first couple of episodes of the series. And Noah, you lovingly shared about your experience workshopping the play before actually landing this series. How does the theatrical history of Yaga infuse your work and your approach to your characters?
Noah Reid: The thing that you can take from that is a kind of atmosphere, and a tone and a feeling. What you have to play with is what’s directly in front of you.
And that is, in a big way, the difference between theater—which is conjuring imagination and doing something repeatable over the course of the month—and film, where a lot less is left to the imagination. The camera is the audience’s invitation to come into the world and the frame sets the parameters. It happens right in that moment and it lives forever.
What we had to work with was Kat’s reimagining. That comes together in film and television in this beautiful alchemy. This would be a very different show if part of it was somebody else’s place. It’s Clark, Hudson, and Carrie-Anne…and that all goes into the brew, you know?
Clark Backo: I did read, of course, all of the episode scripts and I read the play. Kat and I talked about whether I would watch archival footage of the play. And she decided, kind of on behalf of us, not to. I’m really glad she did that. And I think that was an incredible and very trusting decision because she wanted to give me space to bring—like Noah said—myself, to Carson. We didn’t want anything to impede my decisions, my instincts.
Again, this show is a lot about female intuition and trusting the little voice inside, whether you call that magic or intuition. I think a lot of it is a balanced mixture of Rapp [Reid] and I, and every other cast member, having the space to go out and do our own research, ponder themes and genres, the extensive sources that gave us these scripts, and then come together and discuss together, and then start to play together when they say “Action.”
Kat Sandler: When I cast the play, the person who’s playing that part—that’s their character. This is a completely different version of Yaga. So Now, Noah is Rapp in television, and Clark is Carson in television. They are the only people who could have done it.
Yaga will debut as an 8-episode limited series on AMC+ in October.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more news from SDCC ’26.
Quotes have been edited for length and clarity.
