Winnipeg’s Eagle Vision has wrapped on the fifth season of its true crime docuseries Taken, close to six years after the series’ fourth season premiered on APTN.

The 13 x 30-minute series tells the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous people across Canada through interviews with loved ones, reenactments as well as photos, video and occasionally audio of the missing themselves. The fifth season is expected to air on APTN and APTN languages in 2026.

Taken is co-created by host, executive producer and Eagle Vision founder Lisa Meeches (pictured; executive producer, writer and director Rebecca Gibson; and executive producer Kyle Irving. Dinae Robinson is the showrunner, an executive producer as well as a writer and director.

The fourth season, billed as the series’ last, released in 2019, the same year that the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls sent out its final report. In a May 2024 interview with Dennis Ward on APTN News’ Face to Face, Meeches said discussions were occurring on renewing the series. The first four seasons aired on APTN and CBC and over the years the series has been available on various platforms around the world including Tubi, Roku and APTN lumi.

“The reason for the hiatus is that we all decided it was time for a break. The show is really hard to work on, and the broadcasters respected that,” said Gibson in a statement to Playback Daily. “We were hoping that the end of the National (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls) Inquiry would mean change…but change has been slow. We weren’t sure if we should come back to do another season but we talked to our elders and knowledge keepers and some community members who assured us that it was the right thing to do.”

Other episodic writers on the series include: Justina Neepin, Jessica Landry and Ivana Yellowback. Episodic directors include: Yellowback, Kane Kirton, Katarina Ziervogel and Sam Medd. The show’s Anishinaabemowin version is hosted by Vera Houle.

“Taken not only raises awareness of the ongoing injustices Indigenous people face but also seeks justice and answers for those who have gone missing or been murdered,” said Robinson, in a statement. “This series ensures their stories are told with dignity, honoring who they are as individuals, loved and deeply missed by family, friends, and community.”

Taken is supported by APTN, the Canada Media Fund, the Indigenous Screen Office and Migizi Distribution.

Image courtesy of Eagle Vision; photo by Quan Luong