Anna Hopkins & William Atherton Join Syfy's 'Defiance' – TVWise

Anna Hopkins (Nikita) and William Atherton (Life) have joined the cast of Syfy’s flagship drama series Defiance for its upcoming second season, which is currently in production in Toronto. They join James Murray who was also recently added to the cast of the series for its second season.
Atherton has been cast as Viceroy Mercado, a jaded Earth Republic official who is Major Pottinger’s (James Murray) commanding officer; while Hopkins has been cast as Jessica “Berlin” Rai, an Earth Republic soldier and documentarian who makes propaganda films that shine a positive light on the Earth Republic occupation of Defiance.
Developed for television by Rockne S. O’Bannon, Kevin Murphy & Michael Taylor, Defiance is set in the near future and introduces a world where humans and aliens must learn to live together on an exotic new Earth that has been transformed by alien terra-forming machines. The series follows the residents of town called Defiance as they go about their daily lives in this new world. The drama series is produced by Universal Cable Productions and stars Grant Bowler, Tony Curran, Julie Benz, Jaime Murray, Mia Kirshner and Graham Greene. Defiance is not merely a TV series but a multi-platform project encompassing both an MMO game and Syfy’s weekly TV series, in which events in one world can and will directly affect the other. Sources say that the project cost Syfy and Trion somewhere in the realm of $100 million, with Syfy having been locked in for two seasons from day one (just as they were for Stargate: Universe).