Heated Rivalry breakout star Hudson Williams features in the first-look images for Yaga, an upcoming mystery-thriller series reimagining the Slavic folklore figure Baba Yaga.
The newly released photos, revealed by Entertainment Weekly ahead of the show’s appearance at San Diego Comic-Con, offer the first glimpse of Williams alongside The Matrix star Carrie-Anne Moss and Schitt’s Creek’s Noah Reid.
Williams plays Henry Park, the young heir to a powerful fishery whose disappearance sets the story in motion.
The series follows private investigator Rapp (Reid) as he arrives in a small coastal town to investigate, finding himself caught between an apprehensive local detective (Clark Backo), a charismatic university professor “with a taste for younger men” (Moss), and a web of secrets and ancient magic.
The role marks a notable next step for Williams, who became one of the breakout stars of Heated Rivalry, the hit queer hockey romance that became a global sensation after HBO Max picked it up in the US. Yaga also keeps him within the Crave family, the Canadian streamer behind that show.
Created by playwright Kat Sandler, who serves as writer and showrunner, Yaga is based on her acclaimed stage play and reframes the classic witch myth as a feminist thriller.
“Yaga has evolved from myth to stage to my first greenlit series, reclaiming the wicked witch and reshaping her as an incendiary feminist antihero for our time,” Sandler said, describing it as “dark, funny, and unapologetically bold”.
The eight-episode series does not yet have a premiere date, but will stream on Crave in Canada, AMC+ in the US, and Sky in the UK and Ireland.
A first teaser trailer is set to debut at San Diego Comic-Con this week