5 Things We Learned About ‘The Republic of Sarah’ | ATX Television Festival

ATX Television Festival Season 10 gave us a closer look at The Republic of Sarah. On a pre-recorded panel, Stella Baker, Luke Mitchell, Hope Lauren, Nia Holloway, Ian Duff, director Kat Candler, and showrunner Jeffrey Paul King, teased what’s to come during The Republic of Sarah Season 1.

Here are five things we learned from the panel, including a few teases about what to expect from The CW’s latest drama.

1. The Ups and Downs of Creating a Country

Creating a new country isn’t easy, as the citizens of Greylock are about to find out.

Baker comment that “episode after episode is just dodging disaster. It’s endless. It’s an endless stream of disasters that they have to deal with.”

“Negotiating with the governor is the first main obstacle, and she has all the tools. She has all the resources to take us out. The ways that we as a group figure out how to survive that is sort of the first few episodes,” Baker stated.

But, creating a country isn’t all bad. There are some more enjoyable things to tackle too.

King confirmed that we will see the Greylock flag at some point as well as its currency. “The design of the currency is early, and there’s a lot of fun to be had about like who’s on it, what’s on it, what it looks like, the size of certain things on that currency.”

2.  Cooper Family Drama

We get a taste of just how complicated the dynamics are between Sarah, Danny, and Ellen (their mother) on The Republic of Sarah Season 1 Episode 1, “Pilot.” Baker and Mitchell shared a bit more of what we can expect from this dysfunctional family unit.

The pilot sees Danny arriving into town for the first time in years, and he hasn’t exactly kept in touch with his family. Mitchell had this to say about Danny and Sarah’s relationship: “Technically they’re brother and sister, but they could be strangers, really.”

“They are forced into a business relationship initially, and then it’s through the business relationship that the personal stuff keeps coming up and they are forced to deal with that. And whether that brings them closer together or pushes them further apart remains to be seen,” Mitchell stated.

This job is turning into a very complicated one for Danny. Mitchell explained that “the longer he is in town, the more he is forced to face his past, and there are more than his fair share of demons in this town.”

And the number one demon Danny is facing is his mother. “Ellen’s presence in Greylock makes it infinitely worse because she is his demons. She is the demon that he’s facing and the thing that he needs to heal from,” Mitchell explained.

Season 1 will explore the “deep, dark history,” as Mitchell put it, between Danny and his mother.

While she doesn’t have as bad of a relationship with her mother as Danny does, Baker explained that Sarah’s relationship with her mom isn’t the best either.

“I think part of the reason why Sarah has such an impulse to take care of people and to protect the people around her is because she’s sort of grown up having to take care of her mother. And that’s like a huge responsibility in Sarah’s life, and at the same time, Ellen Cooper is incredibly brilliant and has a lot of wisdom and sage advice for Sarah through this process,” Baker said.

“So it’s this like very complicated balance between this is this person who has caused a lot of damage and a lot of hurt and who I’ve had to take care of, and also this person has a lot of wisdom when it comes to this new thing that I’m taking on,” Baker concluded.

3. Danny and Corinne’s History

There’s another person that Danny isn’t thrilled to run into again now that he’s back in Greylock, and that’s Corrine.

“Corinne still being in Greylock is going to be incredibly difficult for Danny to continue to be Greylock… for Danny to continue to do his job and to maintain the facade that he’s strictly here for business,” Mitchell said. “There’s a lot of heartbreak and unresolved feelings that need to be explored and hopefully healed.”

Lauren jumped in to tease that “it’s a very juicy storyline; it’s got all the juice. It’s got heartbreak and juice.”

4. The Importance of Teenagers

While the adults will have their fair share of drama and challenges in starting and running a brand new nation, we’ll also be spending some time with the teenagers of Greylock.

King shared that the teenagers “provide us a fun lens to just also explore fun teenage storylines that don’t have as much to do with country-building like falling in love for the first time, having sex for the first time, and friendships, and moving to a new place.”

King noted that the teenagers will lend a hand when the adults start to crack under the pressure of creating and running a new country. “Kids are incredible because there’s a fearlessness to being a teenager…there’s a bravery to being a teenager where the word ‘no’ doesn’t exist.”

“There are some moments in the show where they really save the adult characters,” King continued. “They are there for adults when the adults need someone to say ‘why not? We can do this. Don’t give up.'”

King also teased that we can expect to see some of Sarah’s students “form sort of big brother/big sister relationships with a lot of the cast” who are on this panel.

5. Teases for What’s to Come

To wrap the panel, the cast was asked to share a tease of what’s to come for their characters in one to five words.

Holloway (AJ): Who is that woman she’s with?

Duff (Grover): Relinquishing and purging

Mitchell (Danny): Exploring fantasy

Lauren (Corrine): Stepping into her power

Baker (Sarah): Just so many mistakes

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Have you checked out The Republic of Sarah? Once you do, be sure to check out our review of The Republic of Sarah Season 1 Episode 1, “Pilot.”

Check out all of our coverage of the ATX Television Festival’s virtual event right here. There is still more to come!

The Republic of Sarah airs Monday at 9/8c on The CW.

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