James Cameron’s “Dark Angel” started off strong, with Jessica Alba leading a resistance of super soldiers as Max Guevara, but when the sci-fi maestro handed the reins over to a new showrunner for Season 2, they drastically changed the cast for a bizarre reason.
“Dark Angel” was created by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee, but it was axed by Fox after two seasons, making it one of many sci-fi shows that were canceled too soon. Eglee was also the showrunner for Season 1. Unfortunately, several members of the cast were reportedly fired for being too old when René Echevarria replaced Eglee for Season 2. Nana Visitor, who played major villain Dr. Elizabeth Renfro, claimed that age was the reason behind her exit from the series.
“I can’t remember who was making the show at the time … They decided it was going to be all young people. They got rid of everybody who was over 40,” she recalled to Screen Rant. “Cameron left, and it became a very different show. So I was gone, we were all gone, unfortunately. But I do believe if James Cameron’s version had been allowed to grow, it would have been a very interesting show.” Unfortunately, James Cameron’s sci-fi team up with Jessica Alba wasn’t meant to be.
Dark Angel’s direction changed dramatically under René Echevarria
Nana Visitor isn’t the only “Dark Angel” star who opened up about the shift in direction when Charles H. Eglee was replaced by René Echevarria. Valerie Rae Miller, who played super soldier Cindy, said that there was a lot of mixed messaging towards the cast. “René is now over the show, but Chick (Charles Eglee) is still controlling my character’s language,” Miller explained to Syfy. “A lot of his power came from the fact that nobody else could write all the slang, but there were a lot of weird things that happened.”
She recalled a moment on the underrated sci-fi show where she kicked back against a storyline where Cindy, a queer character, started to have feelings for Alec (Jensen Ackles). But Miller’s concerns were ultimately ignored by Echevarria. “I think he might have even hung the phone up in my face because he was not having it. There was kind of a backlash. They were trying to push something different. It’s like when you replace a captain and this other captain might not have been ready to be captain yet,” she added. “We had some amazing writers on that show. I feel like the captain kind of changed the direction of the train.”
