{"id":33954,"date":"2023-06-16T14:48:57","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T12:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1845975"},"modified":"2023-06-17T16:09:55","modified_gmt":"2023-06-17T14:09:55","slug":"warrior-nun-creator-on-shows-legacy-we-really-connected-to-a-big-group-of-fans","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/warrior-nun-creator-on-shows-legacy-we-really-connected-to-a-big-group-of-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"Warrior Nun creator on show\u2019s legacy: \u201cWe really connected to a big group of fans\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Pride Month, RadioTimes.com talks to Warrior Nun creator Simon Barry about the show’s beginnings, its huge fan base, and its premature cancellation. <\/p>

By Molly Moss\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 16 June 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Warrior Nun has a fan base like no other.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Netflix cancelled the show in December after just two seasons, its loyal followers weren\u2019t going to take the news lying down. <\/span><\/p>\n

Billboards <\/span>bearing the hashtag #SaveWarriorNun soon appeared outside Netflix\u2019s offices in cities including London, Los Angeles and Milan, while fans also hosted <\/span>meets-ups<\/span><\/a> across the globe, shared selfies with #SaveWarriorNun signs while <\/span>paragliding<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>scuba diving<\/span><\/a>, and launched a petition calling for the show to get a third season, which currently has more than 120,000 signatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s this <\/span>\u201creally strong and vocal and engaged fan base\u201d<\/span> that creator Simon Barry is most proud of when looking back at the show, which was based on a 1990s<\/span> comic book by Ben Dunn and saw 19-year-old <\/span>Ava (Alba Baptista) resurrected in a morgue only to discover she\u2019s been imbued with superpowers and become the chosen halo-bearer for the <\/span>Order of the Cruciform Sword<\/span> (OCS), a religious sect of demon-hunting nuns and priests (yes, really).<\/span><\/p>\n

Warrior Nun not only pushed the boundaries of the fantasy genre itself by blending science fiction, action, fantasy, period and young adult fiction but, led by an almost entirely female cast of warriors who hold the fate of the world in their hands, also offered refreshing female and LGBTQ+ representation rarely seen in fantasy shows.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe really connected to a big group of fans who felt that their show was telling a story that they had not been told, and that they were seeing themselves represented in a way that was really not just entertaining for them but also empowering and joyful and sort of, I guess, satisfying<\/span>,\u201d Barry tells <\/span>RadioTimes.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud that there\u2019s a really good community that we helped build of people that connected with each other as a result of the show and now have formed a strong community that is self-sustaining and built on friendship and shared interests.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Barry was first introduced to Dunn\u2019s comic book by <\/span>friend and film producer Dean English, who had the rights to the material and approached him in 2015 to <\/span>rewrite the script for a feature version he was developing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barry was<\/span> busy working on another show<\/span> at the time, but was immediately attracted to <\/span>\u201csome of the ideas in the comic book and movie as they related to just playing with religion as a mythology: good and evil, heaven and hell, demons and angels\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd also because of power dynamics in the church and the way religion wields influence and power. It just felt like it had a lot of social and political levels to it that push against the idea of what normal fantasy does,\u201d adds Barry.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the story and its huge mythology wasn\u2019t really suitable for a movie, he realised: it was \u201c<\/span>definitely too big\u201d and \u201cneeded a much bigger canvas\u201d. <\/span>And so Barry suggested making a TV series instead.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day you have to figure out what the TV show is before you can sell it, and I hadn\u2019t really had time to develop it as a show,\u201d Barry recalls. That is, until, around 12 months later when he was approached by a Netflix<\/a> executive who was looking for shows to buy and jumped at the concept of Warrior Nun.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was at that point that Barry realised he better figure it out. <\/span>\u201cI went back to Dean and said, \u2018I think I\u2019ve got a way to pitch this as a show, so can I get the rights from you?\u2019 And so he agreed to give me the rights to pitch it to Netflix properly and then I developed essentially what was the show that you\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The story in the original comic book is centred on Sister Shannon Masters<\/a>, <\/span>an older and wiser Joan of Arc-like heroine of the OCS.<\/span> But with a tonne of complex mythology to unpack, Barry realised he needed a protagonist who would be on the same page as the viewer <\/span>\u2013 and <\/span>so he invented Warrior Nun\u2019s <\/span>Ava.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAva was basically an opportunity for the audience to participate in a journey and an experience along with the central character that would then allow us to unpack and peel back the layers of the OCS and the mythology of Warrior Nun instead of asking people to absorb a huge amount of information quickly,\u201d says Barry.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnyway Netflix was very happy with the pitch that I presented to them in terms of the concept of the TV show and the characters, and they immediately ordered it to series.\u2019\u2019 <\/span>Production kicked off in March 2019, shooting on location on the streets and cathedrals of Spain.<\/span><\/p>\n

\""Alba\"