If Primeval can return from the grave, actress Juliet Aubrey hopes its dead characters can resurrect with the death-defying sci-fi show.
The surprise British hit gathered a group of misfit scientists, soldiers and government agents to investigate a rash of time portals that release dinosaurs, monsters and other threats into present-day Earth from the past and future.
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As all sorts of time-traveling beasts roared into the 21st century, Aubrey played the cold, calculating Helen Cutter — Primeval's main baddie during the show's first two seasons on ITV and BBC America. She brought to life a memorable, well-motivated and self-possessed antagonist that seemed more than a match for the show's crusading scientists fighting to send the monsters back.
But ITV canceled the popular Primeval after two seasons, saying tough economic times made the effects-heavy show too expensive. In the final moments of the series' unexpected swan song, Helen was jumped by a dinosaur and rendered into raptor chow.
Now that ITV, BBC and UKTV are teaming up to bring Primeval back from extinction — with new shows to air in early 2011, according to a BBC News report last week — Aubrey is certain we haven't seen the last of Helen.
"I don't think anyone can really 'die' in a world like (Primeval's)," Aubrey told Wired.com from the United Kingdom in a phone interview. "I'm sure she'll return to the show as it moves forward. I hope so, because she was such a joy to play."
Since writing has not yet begun on the revitalized series, there's no way of knowing if Aubrey's character will make a miraculous return to the screen. But while fans loved to hate Helen — her schemes killed off two of the show's handsome leading men, after all — Aubrey was quick to defend her character.
"I don't see (Helen) as evil at all," she said. "I never did. I think she's an eco-warrior. She's seen the future and what humans do to the planet. She's fighting to stop that from happening and will do whatever she has to in that fight."
Aubrey's attachment to her character made the shock of the show's sudden, and now revoked, cancellation all the more painful. "It came as a huge surprise — to all of us," she said. "Especially since the show was doing well and was so popular. I heard from so many fans who loved Primeval and loved Helen that they just couldn't understand (the cancellation)."
Like other sci-fi hits, Primeval has its cache of dedicated fans. Their passionate devotion took some getting used to for Aubrey, but she clearly loves the show's fan base.
"They really care about the show and (its characters)," she said. "I've been in television series in the past (including popular British period piece Middlemarch), but there's a level of excitement around Primeval that I haven't experienced before."
Now that those fans have their favorite show back, Aubrey wants her villain to be reborn. BBC News reported that "original stars including Andrew Lee Potts, Jason Fleming and Hannah Spearritt will return to the show," but there's no definitive word yet on whether Aubrey's character will be resurrected through some sort of sci-fi plot twist.
"I've heard some rumors, but that's all," she said. "I'm waiting to see with all of the fans."
Image courtesy BBC
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