The 2000s, fittingly enough, saw something of a renaissance in sci-fi television. Not that sci-fi had ever really left the airwaves or wasn't prominent in the 1990s, but that era definitely had a "next generation" feel to it in of the genre. Perhaps it was a side effect of the future that was teased in movies like Back to the Future II and The Jetsons--which promised flying cars and robot maids and the like by the year 2000-- not coming to .
Ahead of shows like Lost, Firefly, Star Trek: Enterprise, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate: Atlantis, and of course, the beginning of the modern run of Doctor Who, famed movie director James Cameron took his first crack at small-screen fiction when he added Dark Angel to that decade's class of sci-fi television.
Like many James Cameron projects, Dark Angel was headed up by a strong female protagonist-- in this case, played by Jessica Alba in her breakthrough role-- and took place in a post-apocalyptic future with heavy cyberpunk themes.
For a show that was only on the air for two seasons, there is a lot of interesting trivia about the production of Dark Angel, both on and off the screen. Whether you were a fan or have never even heard of the show until now and just clicked on this list out of curiosity (read: the cover photo of Jessica Alba), you're likely to find the story behind this series to be quite fascinating.
Here are 20 Crazy Details Behind The Making Of Dark Angel.
James Cameron Initially Wasn't Impressed By Jessica Alba
After auditioning over 1,000 girls for the lead role of Max Guevara, producers narrowed the field down to just a few dozen hopefuls, sending those tapes over to James Cameron to make the final call.
Jessica Alba's audition tape didn't make much of an impact on Cameron - or so he thought.
"She didn't present herself all that well," Cameron said, going on to explain that Alba read directly from the script and had her head down through much of the tape.
However, Cameron further explained, "there was something about the way she read the script that copped an attitude that I liked," and that he found himself coming back to her tape over and over again. After requesting to meet her, he was convinced that they had found their Max.
The Pilot Cost $10 million
In this time of cable networks and streaming services thinking nothing of spending seven figures on single episodes of television shows-- and $100+ million on original movies-- it seems rather quaint that the budget for the pilot episode of Dark Angel ended up clocking in at only $10 million.
Network television even today tends to spend a bit more conservatively than cable and Netflix, and in the year 2000, a single episode of a prime-time network television show costing that much was a rarity.
Again, having James Cameron's name attached certainly helped to convince Fox that it would be worth the hefty price tag, especially seeing as how Titanic had just ended its unprecedented theatrical run.
Dark Angel Vs Angel
The media loves a good rivalry, and has been known to great lengths to create one where one didn't previously exist. This was definitely the case for Dark Angel and the vampire drama Angel, which seem to have little in common beyond sharing a word in their titles.
To be fair, there was more than titular commonality linking the two series-- Fox initially put Dark Angel in the same time slot as Angel, pitting the shows directly against each other in the weekly ratings battle.
Media writers jumped all over it, writing many op-eds about which show they predicted would come out ahead. The general consensus seemed to be that Dark Angel would win the night early on while it was still hot, but that Angel would prove to have the greater staying power. That analysis would prove to be spot-on.
It Was Inspired By Y2K Hysteria
Sure, the whole Y2K thing-- ask your parents if you're too young to know what that is-- ended up not amounting to anything.
In the lead-up to the year 2000, we were led to believe that we could see catastrophic failure of the world's computer systems.
Even though the calendar flip from 1999 to 2000 had come and gone by then, the hysteria surrounding it still had a profound effect on fiction for a time. Writers had something new to serve as the cause for a dystopian future beyond the tired tropes of nuclear war and/or zombie virus.
In the world of Dark Angel, Y2K panic's influence is pretty obvious: an electromagnetic pulse had wiped out every computer in the entire U.S., the result of which was the dark, post-apocalyptic setting of the series.
It Wasn't Really Filmed In Seattle
Much is made of Dark Angel taking place in Seattle, with the dilapidated version of the city's iconic Space Needle featuring prominently in the show and its opening credits. In reality, not a single second of the show was actually shot there.
The entirety of Dark Angel's filming took place in and around Vancouver. The production never even bothered to do that thing that other shows do where they go to the city the show takes place in and spend a couple of days filming exterior shots near familiar landmarks to keep the illusion going.
It kind of makes you wonder why they didn't just go with a fictional city if they weren't going to actually film in Seattle, and just have "Terminal City" be some new post-apocalyptic city in and of itself rather than a part of Seattle.
Hitman reused Dark Angel's footage
It's no big secret that a lot of movies and TV shows use stock footage when they just need something like a sweeping pan over a forest or a shot of a thunderstorm, and that you may see the same footage more than once. It's not often that footage using actual actors is shared across such different projects, years apart.
Dark Angel shot scenes of kids being trained for some malicious purpose, all looking similar and with barcodes on their necks.
When it came time to make 2007's Hitman movie, the producers decided that said Dark Angel footage would also work in their movie to show how assassins like Agent 47 are groomed from childhood. With Fox producing both projects and already owning that footage, this was clearly a cost-cutting measure.
Jessica Alba Trained Hard To Play Max
In making the decision to cast Jessica Alba, there must have been some discussion as to her willingness to give the role the physicality it required. To that point, Alba spent a year learning to fight and how to properly handle a motorcycle, the result of which speaks for itself as Dark Angel had some fantastic action setpieces.
This is all the more impressive given that Alba was just 18 when she first got to work on Dark Angel, and she also isn't exactly a huge, hulking figure.
That she did most of her own fight scenes and stunt work is definitely something to commend her for, and the accolades the role earned her-- a Saturn Award, a People's Choice Award, and a TV Guide Award, to name a few-- were well-deserved.
Dean Winchester's early role
Dark Angel had the biggest effect on Jessica Alba's career. Within a few years, she was starring in blockbusters like Sin City and Fantastic Four. That isn't to say that none of the other actors on the show got their first mainstream exposure from the series.
The biggest example of this is easily Supernatural's Jensen Ackles, who had previously been a prolific actor but hadn't yet done anything in the action/sci-fi realm until Dark Angel, paving the way for what would eventually be his most iconic role.
Other actors who appeared in Dark Angel before finding the role that they are more commonly associated with include Rainn Wilson (The Office), Byron Mann (Arrow), Kevin Durand (Lost), and Martin Cummins (Riverdale).
Its Debut Preempted a big live debate
Network television tends to come to a screeching halt whenever someone running for office is saying something important. This includes debates, which are generally run in their entirety by all of the major networks, preempting any other programming that would normally air during that time.
Fox decided that the target demographic for its new series, Dark Angel, might be the type that wouldn't much care to watch two old dudes debate politics and would be looking for something else to watch instead.
The network made the bold move to air the series premiere of Dark Angel instead of the first debate of the 2000 race.
It ended up being a great bit of counter-programming, as the pilot drew strong ratings and was second only to juggernaut CSI for the week.
Max Was Based On Jessica Alba
Although James Cameron clearly had something specific in mind for Max-- and found that something in Jessica Alba-- the truth is that the character hadn't yet been fully formed at the time of the casting process.
In fact, not a single line of Max's dialogue had even been written yet when Alba got the part.
The upshot to casting the role before the character was "finished" was it gave Cameron and Dark Angel co-creator Charles H. Eglee the ability for Max and Alba to meet halfway, and to form Max around Alba as much as Alba was being trained to become Max.
As such, Max was developed around Alba's attitude, mannerisms, and her particular way of speaking. It's the ideal way to ensure that a character and her actor are a perfect fit.