Crave's new eight-episode drama Yaga begins streaming on Friday, October 23, 2026, with the first two half-hour episodes arriving at once and the rest following weekly through a two-episode finale on November 27. The series, set in the fictional town of Whittock and shot on Vancouver Island, follows a wealthy family that holds sway over the community while witches in the area are willing to push back, according to CBC.
The show arrives with considerable anticipation, partly because Hudson Williams, who drew a following for Heated Rivalry, plays two separate characters. But the ensemble is stocked with established Canadian names: Carrie-Anne Moss of The Matrix, Noah Reid of Schitt's Creek, Clark Backo of Letterkenny and Megan Follows, known for Anne of Green Gables. Sheila McCarthy, also in the cast, described the tone to CBC as something like Dexter with witches.
Why it matters
Yaga is a homegrown production moving from a small Toronto stage to a national streaming platform with its original writer at the helm. Kat Sandler wrote and directed the play, which premiered at Tarragon Theatre in September 2019 and earned a Dora Award nomination, and she now serves as writer and showrunner for the series. CBC reports that the stage version blended folklore with a murder mystery, with three performers covering 17 roles on a mostly empty stage.
Sandler told CBC at the Toronto International Film Festival premiere that expanding the story for television with this cast and creative team made the material work in a new form. In her view, the story "sings" as television.
A murder wall and a split role
The series carries a tangled narrative, and the cast took an unusual approach to keeping it straight. According to The Spec, the actors built a murder wall to track the story's shifting threads.
One structural change from the play concerns the part now played by Williams. In the stage version it was a single character. Sandler told CBC the decision to divide that role in two came well before Williams became internationally known for Heated Rivalry. The show needed additional suspects and a more populated town, and she called his availability and willingness to join a piece of good fortune.
Reid plays private detective Charlie Rapp. He told CBC he had been lined up for the original theatre production but had to step away because of a scheduling conflict with Schitt's Creek. His role here is a departure from the warm Patrick he played on that series; he said he and the producers have joked that this marks his darker period, and that he is enjoying it.
Backo plays Sergeant Carson, a local police officer who is paired with Rapp against her inclinations. She told CBC that working among powerful women is simply her normal experience and that she was glad to see it reflected on screen.
Baba Yaga, from folklore to the small screen
The title comes from Slavic folklore. Baba Yaga is the old woman who lives alone in the woods in a hut mounted on enormous chicken legs. Depending on the telling, she is a child-eating witch or a wise figure who aids a hero, CBC reports.
The tale also appears in the 1992 bestseller Women Who Run With the Wolves, where the character is tied to confronting darkness, ageing and death and to emerging with a mature feminine strength. That book played a direct part in bringing Moss aboard. It is one of her favourites, and she had been rereading it when a letter from Sandler arrived asking her to join. Moss told CBC's Eli Glasner that she takes such signals seriously and that they have long guided her decisions.
Music is part of the promotional push as well. Alanis Morissette recorded a version of Donovan's "Season of the Witch" for the show and posted about it on Instagram under the hashtag #witchesunite, according to CBC.
A cast that set the tone
Sandler described the Canadian performers as collaborative, generous and kind. Sam Krochmal, an emerging actor in the production, told CBC he was struck by how little ego the more experienced cast members brought, and said there was an unspoken shared commitment to Sandler's vision.
The premiere drew the cast to TIFF, where CBC spoke with several of them on the red carpet. The Hollywood Reporter has also published a guide to where the series can be streamed, and Yahoo News Canada has coverage of the fast shooting schedule behind the production.
Viewers who want the full story will need to settle in: episodes roll out weekly until the late-November finale, so the mystery at the centre of Whittock will not resolve quickly.
