Producing Netflix’s new original series Wayward was an “unusual” experience for executive producer Jennifer Kawaja, in some of the best ways possible.

Wayward is created by Toronto-born comedian Mae Martin. Set in the early 2000s, the eight-part series centres on the mysterious Tall Pines Academy in Vermont, where two troubled Canadian teens are sent to curb their rebellious behaviour. Martin also stars as a police officer who moves to Tall Pines with their partner, played by fellow Canadian Sarah Gadon.

The series is produced by Sphere Media, with Martin serving as co-showrunner and executive producer with Ryan Scott. Other EPs include Sphere’s Kawaja and Bruno Dubé, and Objective Fiction’s Ben Farrell and Hannah Mackay.

Wayward has become a certified hit on the streamer. It has been the No. 1 English series globally on Netflix for two weeks since its release on Sept. 25, garnering a total of 22.3 million views as of Oct. 5. It was the No. 1 series in 35 countries in its second week on the platform, including Canada and the U.S. The total hours viewed is 132.5 million, according to Netflix.

Financing and development

Martin had an existing relationship with Netflix when they were looking for partners on the initial concept. The streamer was the international distributor for Martin’s 2020 rom-com Feel Good, which was produced by Objective Fiction.

Martin and Objective Fiction pitched an early version of Wayward to Netflix after making Feel Good. Netflix wanted to lean into the Canadian elements of the story, since it was loosely based on events that happened in Martin’s childhood when they were growing up in Ontario. At the time, Netflix was setting up its Canadian office with local content executives Danielle Woodrow and Tara Woodbury, so the timing was ideal to bring development under their umbrella.

In 2022, Sphere Media was brought on to further support development. Kawaja tells Playback Daily that Netflix granted Martin a lot of creative freedom to support their vision, “[not only in regards to] the themes that we were exploring, but also the tone and the style.”

The series got the greenlight in April 2023 under the working title Tall Pines, with Ryan Scott named as co-showrunner with Martin. However, they soon faced a delay when the Writers Guild of America strike began a month later, shutting down the writers’ room until the strike ended in September.

Financing for the series was provided by Netflix, which Kawaja says afforded her a certain level of freedom as a producer. “It was pretty incredible to work on a show where we weren’t financing from six or seven sources, where we could hire from across the country, whether it was cast or crew,” she says.

For example, the producers were able to hire Quebec-based production designer Emmanuel Fréchette, whose aesthetic they felt fit the needs of the project, even though this would render the series ineligible for a production tax credit in Ontario. (They did, however, utilize the federal Film or Video Production Services Tax Credit.)

The same principle applied to the casting of some of the lead roles. Kawaja estimates they received 3,000 auditions for the parts of teenagers Leila and Abbie, but U.S.-based actor Alyvia Alyn Lind was ultimately selected for Leila. (Lind does have a dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship.)

“I’m not usually in that position,” says Kawaja. “[You] try to do the best job [casting] for the show, but you are always working with restrictions because of how the tax credits form part of the financing.”

One high-profile casting coup was Toni Collette as the enigmatic leader of Tall Pines Academy, who Kawaja says was “the choice that everyone dreamed of.” They had a connection to Collette through Netflix and Welsh director Euros Lyn, who was on board to direct the pilot. Kawaja says Martin ended up writing a letter to Collette, and then met with her personally to seal the deal.

This kind of going above and beyond reflected Martin’s commitment to the project, which also extended to writing a letter to Pink Floyd to secure the rights to the pivotal song “Time,” and meeting with co-star Gadon. “It made for a really great process all around,” says Kawaja.

Production and post-production

The show eventually went into production in July 2024 with the new title of Wayward. Lyn helmed a total of four episodes, with Canadians Renuka Jeyapalan and John Fawcett directing two each. Production lasted more than 80 days.

Kawaja says transportation quickly became the biggest line item in the budget. Several scenes were set in Toronto, so they could shoot the city as-is, but the rest of the show was set in a fictional town in Vermont, which soon became a “logistical nightmare.”

“We couldn’t find all the things we wanted in one place, so we were literally on the move across Ontario,” she says, citing Hamilton, Millbrook, Dundas, Pickering, Port Perry and Caledon as some of the locations they were filming in.

That meant taking on the time and cost to transport the cast and crew to various locations. Despite these challenges, “we managed to piece it all together and find everything that we needed to create the spirit of Vermont in Ontario,” says Kawaja, who credits much of the coordination to producer Anna Beben.

Music was another key element in the series. The production team brought on music supervisor Jody Colero, who leads the Toronto-based collective The Wilders, to develop a track list that would reflect the music of the early 2000s while also incorporating older rock that would appeal to teens of that era. “I really trust them and their work, and we knew we wanted the soundtrack that lived in Leila and Abbie’s heads,” says Kawaja.

For the score, they hired composer Marie-Hélène L. Delorme, which Kawaja says was risky because she had never written music for a series set outside of Quebec before. However, her previous work and the materials she sent based on the series’ scripts convinced the team to take the chance.

Kawaja says they asked Delorme to start composing before they had a first cut, since Martin, Lyn and Scott wanted to work out the tone of the score before locking in the editing. “Episode one was the hardest and longest [to complete] because we had to redo it a couple of times until we found … what felt right,” she says.

While Netflix did not disclose the budget for the series, it did publish an economic report on the production. The company estimates that the series contributed more than $50 million in gross value added to the Canadian economy. Production hired more than 2,400 Canadian crew and contracted 650 Canadian vendors.

Sales and marketing

Netflix was solely responsible for the marketing of the series, according to a spokesperson for the streamer. The marketing team started building the promotional assets during production. They hired unit publicist Renee Pye, who coordinated press visits to set, and Michael Gibson as the stills photographer.

Once the marketing team received word that Wayward would have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9, they decided to build buzz around the premiere. They brought key cast members — including Martin and Collette — to the premiere to walk the red carpet, and built a marketing activation at the festival to drive up audience interest.

The activation was a collaboration between Netflix, Eat it Up Media and Media Experts. A mysterious door was placed near Roy Thomson Hall, which, when opened, revealed a montage of clips from the series, with accompanying audio delivered through bluetooth headphones.

“The series is a true genre-bending title with incredible auspices attached to it, so we were able to leverage the star power of Mae Martin and Toni Collette and elements of mystery and suspense (with a hint of quirk) to help build excitement and intrigue,” said the spokesperson.

Image courtesy of Netflix