‘Orphan Black’ Finale: Co-Creators Reveal the ‘Apocalypse Now’ Ending They Had in Mind

“Orphan Black” came to an end after five seasons last night, but its story goes much further back. Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, the clone drama’s co-creators, were developing the series for more than a dozen years before it premiered — a long journey they discussed with Vulture to mark the occasion of the series finale.

“A while ago, John and I looked at our original notes from 2001, about what the story would be,” Manson said of the show’s narrative trajectory and whether it ended the way they imagined it would. “Even those first cursory notes really have the seed of ‘Orphan Black’ in them.”

Still, it wasn’t exactly what they had in mind: “Graeme and I always imagined a bit of an ‘Apocalypse Now’ type of ending,” Fawcett admitted. “In the end, that changed somewhat. Season five was always going to be our ‘Heart of Darkness’ season.”

Unlike a lot of series finales, “To Right the Wrongs of Many” has a substantial denouement that jumps forward in time. Fawcett said that this was very much by design and had a specific purpose: “The final episode really is an emotional good-bye, rather than a thrilling, exciting, edge-of-your-pants kind of good-bye,” he said. Read the full interview here.