TVWise can exclusively reveal that Gillian Anderson was at one stage in contention for a lead role in Defiance, Syfy’s ambitious new science fiction series.
The X-Files star was considered for one of the show’s central female characters, but the casting did not progress, with producers said to have assumed she would not be keen to return to a regular role on episodic television.
Defiance comes from Rockne S. O’Bannon, Kevin Murphy and Michael Taylor and forms part of an ambitious transmedia project, pairing the television series with a tie-in online game from Trion Worlds. Set on a terraformed future Earth where humans and several alien races live alongside one another, it centres on the frontier town of Defiance, built on the ruins of St. Louis.