Emily Andras has been building her diverse television credits in Canada writing on Degrassi: The Next Generation, Sophie, King, Killjoys, and Total Drama Island. Her showrunning experience began with Instant Star (2004) and the last three seasons of Lost Girl (2010). But her breakout credit is as the showrunner for the SYFI hit series Wynonna Earp (2016-2021).
In Wynonna Earp, an adaption of the IDW comic of the same name, Andras created a supernatural Western set in a small town of Purgatory. On her 27th birthday, Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano), descendent of the legendary lawman and gunslinger Wyatt Earp, is gifted with the family curse, to send revenants–the men and women Wyatt killed who became demons upon his death–back to hell with a revolver named Peacemaker.
Compared by critics to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the woman-forward, queer-positive series coupled with Andras’ bold storytelling and Scrofano’s dynamic performance as the unconventional, reluctant hero, make Wynonna a powerful entry into the TV superhero lexicon. Among the myriad masked, franchised superheroes, Wynonna Earp offers a refreshing and unique alternative to the classic idea of what a superhero or heroine is or should be.
Wynonna Earp struck such a chord with fans that they created a social media campaign, and even bought billboards in Times Square, in order to keep the series alive; the fourth and final season is the result of the fans’ relentless efforts. Since the finale aired, the fandom lives on with Earpapalooza and Earp cons around the world. In 2019, Andras received the WGC Showrunner Award by the Writers Guild of Canada.
In her own words: One of the things I'm most proud of about Wynonna Earp, I always wanted you to be able to turn it on at the end of your long day at work and know you were in for an hour that made you feel everything. A superhero adventure, a girl kicking ass, you're laughing out loud at the antics and jokes, and maybe at the end you're crying over an emotional, resonant scene between two sisters. What a gift, in 42 minutes, to take your audience on that journey. That's all you can hope for as a storyteller, to make people feel things. [laughs] Even if they come for me on Twitter, which happens a lot.
When I first watched the show, at the recommendation of a friend, I didn’t get through episode one before deciding I was out. Heavy genre, low-fi effects, and demons with red glowy eyes who burn to as they make their peace in a fiery ash. I was out. I walked away certain I need not look back. Somehow I did, maybe it was AbnormallyAdam, maybe it was curiosity, but I’m so glad I did – the cast is spectacular with incredible chemistry, the dialog and zingers are laugh out loud, and the locations in Canada are simply stunning. I’m booking my trip now.
When it comes to genre, Andras has discussed at length, simultaneously tempering my reservations and sparking my curiosity. In her own words, per CBC:
Genre is anything where the Earth is not the world we know. It includes fantasy, time travel, horror, scifi — anything where the world is othered.
The beauty of scifi and fantasy is that they dwell in the world of possibilities. They're about hope — what could be, instead of what is.
In Canada, we literally live the shadow of — depending on your point of view of the U.S. — either heaven or the Death Star. Everything we do is in that shadow. And that's where genre thrives. Time and again, heroes of genre are underestimated, outgunned, outmanned. Canadians know how to live in that space. We know what it is to try to make your mark on the world through a path of goodness and righteousness — with a lot of mistakes along the way — and to try to define yourself on your own terms in the face of something so much bigger than yourself.
Genre is a playground for a writer. You can talk about big philosophical ideas, and how we see and define ourselves, but in a way that's super fun and not pretentious. You're kind of tricking the audience. You're in a world that is un-human, discussing what it is to be human.
Andras has created a brand of ensuring everybody has nuance. Taking traditional male spaces in a genre and flipping it on its head, taking the characters that would normally be on the margins of the story and making them the heroes. In Wynonna Earp, Andras makes the women the gunslingers and the queer characters the heroes, even the angels.
As Andras plots out her next steps, she’s going for the brass ring tackling fantasy and space told through a feminist and queer lens, even taking on ageism and fat culture. Again putting the spotlight on people who don’t get to see themselves on TV, showing heroes in an unexpected way, as if they always should’ve been there.
Her Advice to Writers:
Per Deadline: I think that you really need to know what your lines in the sand are. Showrunning and creating and writing in television, it’s collaborative and it’s compromise all the time, and you can’t be a bully and you can’t be a monster about it. If you want to make great TV, you hire the best people you can. You need to let them do their jobs alongside you, and they will lift you up too.
There’s enough glory and triumphs and victories for everyone, but at the same time, it has really taught me personally what I’m willing to compromise on, I’m just not willing to compromise anymore on the characters that aren’t fully fleshed out or diversity, or gender representation. I feel kind of buoyed by the sense that like if you make something unique, there is an audience for it. It doesn’t have to be for everyone, but it really has to be authentic, and that’s what Wynonna Earp has taught me, that people understood the stories we were trying to tell ferociously. It has made me braver. It has made me braver in every way I think, but also grateful.
On fan reactions, suggestions and input:
It's about giving the audience what they need, versus what they think they want. It's a bus, and I drive it. You can get on; you can yell at me, storm off. But if we all try to grab the wheel, the bus is going to crash. That's my deal with the fans. Enjoy the journey or flip me the bird, but I'm driving.
On audiences:
You can no longer make something for everybody. Audiences are too fragmented. It's better to make the absolute best show you can for a group of people who love it. It's okay if your Aunt Sally doesn't love it. Find your niche. That's a good place to be.
Excerpts and quotes from the CBC article by Johanna Schneller, posted May 10, 2121. See full article here.
