Everyone needs some blue sky television where the good guys always come through, and the bad guys get what’s coming to them, and everyone looks good getting it done. Since its debut in 2024, CBC’s Wild Cards has not provided delightful blue sky; it’s delivered it wrapped in comedic shenanigans and stuffed with charismatic chemistry.
Wild Cards Season 3 premieres on January 7 on CBC and CBC Gem, and we were lucky enough to sit down (virtually) with stars Giacomo Gianniotti and Vanessa Morgan to unpack where Ellis and Max are now after Season 2’s cliffhanger of a finale.
[The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
In the month that has passed since the Season 2 finale, what has life been like for Ellis?
GG: Ellis has been trying to find himself. He took his boat down to Mexico, surfed, and bummed around, trying to figure out who he is after the closure of finding his brother’s killer. In that time, he finds a woman and falls in love and returns with her. That’s where Ellis is beginning his journey this season.
It seems that Max’s month hasn’t been as relaxing.
VM: No, it definitely hasn’t. I mean, Max received a blessing: Her mother came back from the dead. She was gone for 15 years. Max thought she died in a car accident. Well, lo and behold, she’s just been in hiding from a drug dealer/major mafia guy, Gedeon Varga, for 15 years, and was trying to protect her family by staying away in case he came after them and killed them.
So Max is dealing with the “Oh my gosh, I have my mom back!” but also the resentment of “How did you not reach out to me in 15 years? Send a letter, a present, anything, so that I knew you were alive, and I didn’t have to live with that guilt and that heartbreak?” and also the fact that this drug dealer/mafia guy is now after me and my dad and everybody I love. And we have to give them $150 million. So, she has a lot on her plate.
And then, also dealing with the fact that Ellis has a new love interest. I think her world is in the Upside-Down right now.
Your father, George, obviously didn’t know your mother, Vivienne, was alive either. What was that family reunion like?
VM: It’s an awkward one because Max has resentment, but George has that times 10. He just cannot believe that his wife abandoned them for 15 years and did not reach out. It takes him a long time to warm up. He’s just really unsure of her in this moment. I feel the same, but it’s my mom, and I just revert back to being that little kid again. Max is also torn as to her intentions at the same time.
From your separate perspectives, what is the dynamic between Max and Ellis now versus where they’ve been?
GG: At the beginning [of Season 3], he comes back, and he has a girlfriend. When [Max] didn’t show up on the boat when he invited her [at the end of Season 2], actions speak louder than words, right? So, he said, “Okay, she didn’t show up. Message received, loud and clear.” But ultimately, he comes back, and he doesn’t have this context [about Vivienne]. Max is hiding all of this from Ellis, who doesn’t know.
He’s trying to work with Max and be a team member again, but he has no idea about all this inner turmoil that Max is dealing with. It’s very difficult for Max, also, to be going through all of this and not have a friend to lean on. Ellis is normally the person she’d come to, but she can’t. It’s too complicated. So she has this big problem in her life, and she doesn’t have anyone she can really talk to about it. It’s tough for her, and it’s tough for me.
VM: It’s obviously really hard on Max, and she is trying to keep it together, like she usually does, and mask it. She doesn’t want Ellis to know what’s really going on behind closed doors. She’s trying to pretend to be happy for him and his new relationship, but also wanting him to know that “I wanted to be on the boat that day, but this is what I was dealing with.” She’s dealing with a lot, and she’s scared that she’s gonna lose the love of her life.
Would you say that this is Max’s new con, trying to convince Ellis that everything’s okay?
VM: It’s definitely one of them. That façade could fail. He knows Max very well. And there’s only so much you can hide when you’re involved with a major mafia guy.
Wild Cards lets Vancouver play Vancouver and showcases it so beautifully. Since both of you are originally from Ontario, how do you like filming in BC?
VM: I love Vancouver. I love the natural elements that we get. It’s such a beautiful place to live. Obviously, this time of year, it’s the gloomy, rainy season. Spring, summer, and fall, I love it here. This is the rainier season, so I’m craving the sun.
I’ve been lucky where I went seven years on one show and then, one month after I wrapped, straight into Wild Cards. So I’ve gotten to just stay here. I’m really happy I chose this place as home.
GG: Vanessa calls it home. I live in Los Angeles. She has a different relationship with Vancouver. [But] I’m Canadian, so being in Canada is lovely. Shooting here and being on a truly Canadian show is fantastic. I’m very proud of that. I’d never been to Vancouver before shooting this show. All of it is still very novel and new to me. It’s exciting. BC is a beautiful province, and we’re very lucky to get to shoot here. I wish we could shoot more stuff outside, but like Vanessa says, it’s almost always raining. It’s hard to shoot out in the rain. In the brief period in September, when we arrive, we get some outdoor stuff with sun, and it looks great.
Did you have a favourite episode in Season 3?
GG: We had a lot of fun on the second episode, which features boy bands, which wasn’t per se a movie, but it was more of playing with the early 2000s boy band era. There’s a murder in among this famous, fictitious boy band, and so we deal with all those boy band personalities. They’re jealous of each other; one got the solo career, one’s out of rehab. All these clichés. It was a really fun world to play in and explore. It’s a very funny episode. The fans are really going to like that one.
Vanessa, was that your favourite as well?
VM: Yeah, it is. I loved being a boy band fangirl, channelled my 16- 15-year-old self. It was fun.
Can’t talk about Wild Cards without talking about Marc, the cat. What’s it like having a boat-cat?
GG: He’s fun. He’s not like a dog. Dogs do exactly what you tell them to do the moment you tell them. They’re very trained. When you tell [cats] to do something, it’s more of a suggestion. It’s like, “Could you walk over here?” He’s like, “Maybe. If I feel like it.” He’s very food-motivated, but he’s also very sleepy. Sometimes, he’ll just pass out in take. But he’s great. He looks like a million bucks on camera: He’s so charming and cute and funny.
VM: Those big eyes.
GG: Our fans adore him, so we’re happy to have him on the show.
You never feel upstaged by the cat?
GG: No, no.
VM: Sometimes.
GG: No, never. [smiles] Marc definitely upstages me. In every scene.
The theme of Season 3 is “breaking the cycle,” and a lot of that has to do with Max and Vivienne’s relationship. How does it apply to Ellis?
GG: He’s been trapped in this cycle of dread and grief from his brother, and Season 3 is breaking that cycle of being down and depressed and not going forward with any purpose in his life. Now, he’s come back. He’s fresh and in love, really wanting to take on life and be excited about life and what it has to offer.
What’s Max’s take on Ellis’s new love interest?
VM: It’s very irritating for Max since she’s trying to put a good face on, but Max is just going through it. She’s seeing him living his best life — waking up, going for runs, SMILING, and talking about Jessica. It’s irritating for her. First of all, she would want to be in Jessica’s shoes, and second of all, she is NOT enjoying life right now, and he really is. Also, they’re best friends, and she feels that she has even lost her best friend. It’s hard for her.
Wild Cards has had some amazing guest stars over the first two seasons. Was there a guest star in Season 3 who really surprised or delighted you?
GG: We have a wrestler from the WWE who graced us with his presence, and I think they’re going to get a kick out of that. He was really great and fun, and funny. Very funny episode. I don’t think we can share the name, but I can maybe tease that.
VM: He did a really great job. That was a fun episode.
GG: The character was very funny.
Max’s free-spiritedness was the primary “wild card” in Wild Cards when it began. Over the first two seasons, she has established stable relationships and more predictable routines. Who’s the biggest “wild card” in Season 3?
GG: Jessica, Ellis’s girlfriend, is certainly a big wild card in this season, which throws a wrench in [Max and Ellis’s] story and forces them to get very creative about their relationship.
Max’s mother, Vivienne, is also a big wild card added to this season. The journey that Vanessa and her go on this season is very big. And then we have this Gedeon Varga guy, this big mafia bad guy, who’s our looming shadow of darkness throughout the entire season. He’s definitely a big wild card and someone everyone is very afraid of, so there’s a few wild cards.
Wild Cards Season 3 premieres January 7 on CBC and CBC Gem.
