Murtz On The Scene: Exclusive Interview With Killjoys‘ Hannah John-Kamen

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I just knew I had seen her before.

When I was offered the chance to talk to Hannah John-Kamen ahead of the Killjoys series premiere tonight on Space, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she looked familiar.

Despite being so young, John-Kamen has racked up an impressive list of credits and that’s when I realized where I had seen her before.

Black Mirror

Yes, the Black Mirror.

For those who are unfamiliar with my affinity for the dark UK anthology series, the show examines modern society with a focus on the unanticipated consequences of new technology. The critically-acclaimed series was initially released in 2011 but has recently found a new North American fanbase after it was released on Netflix.

In any event, John-Kamen guest starred on the “15 Million Merits” episode, which I believe is the best single hour of television ever made. As a result, when the opportunity presented itself to talk to John-Kamen about her new project and her first time as a series lead, I jumped at the opportunity.

Space’s latest offering, (the brainchild of Lost Girl creator Michelle Lovretta) tells the story three reclamation agents, dubbed “Killjoys” as they chase deadly warrants throughout the Quad (a planetary system on the brink of class warfare).

The 10-episode series follows Dutch (John-Kamen), a gorgeous former assassin as she teams up with veritable tech expert John (Aaron Ashmore), and his brother D’avin (Luke Macfarlane) as the trio chase down the different warrants that they are assigned in each episode. On every mission and in every episode, the three Killjoys track down people, places and things as they undeniably the baddest bounty hunters around.

There is no question that Killjoys is built around John-Kamen. The English actress sparkles as the leader of her team and the only thing quicker than the delivery of her punchy one-liners are the speed with which she proceeds to kick ass.

In our interview, we discussed a variety of topics including the nature of the series and how it differs from standard sci fi fare. John-Kamen also explained why the team is so small and if this will actually work in the show’s favour as it allows audiences to truly understand each Killjoy’s motivations and rationale (instead of only seeing glimpses had the team included more members). I asked the actress to discuss why shows with strong female leads seem to be the norm on television, with Tatiana Maslany’s work on Orphan Black, and Hayley Atwell on Agent Carter cited as specific examples. We talked about the two sides of Dutch on the show and John-Kamen explained that her mysterious past will also be explained during the course of the first season. . I also asked Hannah to elaborate on whether we might see a love triangle develop between the two brothers and their respective feelings for her character as well. Finally, we end the interview with the actress teaching me one of the many action moves she learned for the show. Get ready to laugh (I mean it!)

Check out the interview above!

The series premiere of Killjoys airs tonight at 9 p.m. on Space.

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.