Reign

Reign
Production Information
Creator	Laurie McCarthy and Stephanie Sengupta
Production Company	The CW Joyful Girl Productions Take 5 Productions Whizbang Films Warner Bros. Television CBS Television Studios
Filming Location	Ireland Toronto, Canada
Starring	Adelaide Kane as Mary Stuart Toby Regbo as Francis II Torrance Coombs as Sebastian Anna Popplewell as Lola Narcisse Caitlin Stasey as Kenna de Poitiers Celina Sinden as Greer Castleroy Megan Follows as Catherine de' Medici Jenessa Grant as Aylee Alan van Sprang as Henry II Jonathan Keltz as Leith Bayard Sean Teale as Louis of Condé Rachel Skarsten as Elizabeth I
Series Information
Original Run	October 17, 2013
Number of Seasons	1, 2, 3, 4
Number of Episodes	78

Reign is a historical (fiction) TV Show that airs on The CW. The series is mainly about Mary Stuart living in France.

Premise

Hidden between the lines of the history books is the story of Mary Stuart, the young woman the world would come to know as Mary, Queen of Scots. Queen of Scotland since she was six days old, the teenage Mary is already a headstrong monarch - beautiful, passionate, and poised at the very beginning of her tumultuous rise to power. Arriving in France with four close friends as her ladies-in-waiting, Mary has been sent to secure Scotland’s strategic alliance by formalizing her arranged engagement to the French king's dashing son, Prince Francis. But the match isn't signed and sealed: it depends more on politics, religion and secret agendas than affairs of the heart. Prince Francis is intrigued by the fiery Scot, but like most young men, he resists the idea of settling down into marriage, especially when he has a history with a lady of the court and his own point of view on the wisdom of an alliance with Scotland. Still, an attraction between Mary and Francis is ignited. Further complicating things is Bash, Francis' roguish half-brother, who has a history of his own - despite his illegitimate birth, Bash is his father's favorite. And now that Bash has caught Mary's eye, a royal triangle may be forming. While at French Court, fierce foes and dark forces conspire to sabotage Mary’s marriage to Francis and even threaten her life, until a mysterious shrouded guide becomes her ally. With danger and sexual intrigue around every dark castle corner, Mary rallies her ladies-in-waiting and steels herself, ready to rule the new land and balance the demands of her country and her heart.

Cast

Main

Actor	Role	Seasons
		1	2	3
		Adelaide Kane	Mary Stuart	Main
Megan Follows	Catherine de' Medici	Main
Torrance Coombs	Sebastian	Main
Toby Regbo	Francis II	Main
Celina Sinden	Greer Castleroy	Main
Caitlin Stasey	Kenna de Poitiers	Main
Anna Popplewell	Lola Narcisse	Main
Jonathan Keltz	Leith Bayard	Recurring	Main
Jenessa Grant	Aylee	Main
Alan van Sprang	Henry II	Main	Recurring
Sean Teale	Louis of Condé		Main

Recurring

Actor	Role	Seasons
		1	2
Rossif Sutherland	Nostradamus	Recurring
Michael Therriault	Aloysius Castleroy	Recurring
Craig Parker	Stéphane Narcisse		Recurring
Rose Williams	Claude de Valois		Recurring
Katie Boland	Clarissa	Recurring
Yael Grobglas	Olivia D'Amencourt	Recurring
Giacomo Gianniotti	Remy	Recurring
Anna Walton	Diane de Poitiers	Recurring
Kathryn Prescott	Penelope	Recurring
Peter DaCunha	Charles IX	Recurring
Gil Darnell	Christian de Guise	Recurring

Guest Cast

• Amy Brenneman as Marie de Guise
• Tahmoh Penikett as John Prevo
• Shauna MacDonald as Hortenza de' Medici
• Luke Roberts as Simon Westbrook
• Shawn Doyle as Claude de Guise
• Michael Aronov as Count Vincent
• Ted Atherton as Lord Hugo
• Daniel Fathers as Alec
• Greg Bryk as Richard Delacroix
• Hannah Anderson as Rowan
• Andrew Airlie as Lord McKenzie
• Joe Doyle as James Stuart
• Matthew MacFadzean as Roman de' Medici
• Ari Cohen as Robert Norwood
• Sarah Winter as Yvette Castleroy
• Manolo Cardona as Tomás of Pamela

Opening Credits

Reign intro

Season 1 Opening (with voiceover)

Reign - New Opening 1080p

Season 1 Opening

Reign Season 2 - New Opening Main Titles (HD) 720p

Season 2 Opening

Episodes

Main Article: Episode Guide

Developement and Production

Conception

In February 2013, The CW announced its order of a pilot for a TV series based on the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, created by Stephanie Sengupta and Laurie McCarthy, and produced by CBS Studios. Part of the reason McCarthy chose Mary Stuart as the subject is because of her life history and multiple husbands, which makes her story "sexier". The pilot was directed by Brad Silberling, with Sengupta and McCarthy as the writers and executive directors; Sengupta left the team in May 2013, leaving Laurie McCarthy as the sole showrunner. On February 9, 2013, it was announced that Australian actress Adelaide Kane would be playing the main character.

Showrunner McCarthy describes the show as deliberately taking liberties with history, and that it's more "entertainment" than history, while actress Anna Popplewell refers to the show as "fantasy history", exploring the characters in hypothetical situations. Actress Megan Follows describes the show as "24 for the pre-Renaissance", as they may extend historical events over a longer period of time. McCarthy adds that the show is designed to be interesting to a contemporary audience, so viewers who aren't familiar with history will be able to watch and relate to the characters. Among the creative choices is the use of modern music in the show soundtrack, and its costumes. The show's costumes are designed by Meredith Markworth-Pollack, who worked on the CW's other shows Hart of Dixie and Gossip Girl, who created different looks for Mary and her ladies, each to complement their differing personalities. The ladies: Lola, Kenna, Greer, and Aylee, are loosely based on Mary Beaton, Mary Seton, Mary Fleming, and Mary Livingston who were ladies-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots.

Casting

Kane auditioned when she was filming a recurring role on the third season of MTV TV series Teen Wolf. When Kane got the part, the Teen Wolf writers wrote her character leaving the series. Kane is part Scottish on her mother's side, and did research on the historical Mary Stuart in preparing for the role. Torrance Coombs was announced as having been cast as Sebastian, one of the leading characters, in March 2013. Sebastian is an original character created for the show, so Coombs didn't have as much research in preparation for the role, though he faced the challenge of changing his performance from that in The Tudors, another historical TV series he'd been involved in. Alan Van Sprang, who was cast as Henry II of France, modeled his performance after Bill Clinton. In November 2013, Amy Brenneman was announced as having been cast as Mary Stuart's mother, Mary de Guise, a role that initially went to Brenneman's Private Practice co-star Kate Walsh, who was unable to commit due to conflicting filming commitments. Toby Regbo was cast as Dauphin Francis in March 2013.

Filming

A large part of the filming for the first season took place in Toronto, Canada and Ireland. The pilot was filmed across various castle throughout Ireland. The studio filming takes place in Toronto, while a large part of the outdoor scenes take place in Ireland. Also of the outer shots of French Court are actually of Ashford Castle.

Editing for sexual content

The show's pilot was distributed on May 20, 2013 to advertisers and critics for promotion and to generate hype. The pilot was edited before its final airing on October 13, trimming the sexual content of the scene where Kenna masturbates after witnessing a bedding ceremony. A later episode of the season, 1.13 "The Consummation", has two versions: an on-air cut for television broadcast, and an online streaming version with additional sexual content that was made available on the CW's website a few hours later. This action was criticized by the Parents Television Council for putting sexual content online "where presumably children will be able to watch them with no rating or blocking capability".

Awards

Year	Result	Award	Category	Recipients
2014	Won	People's Choice Award	Favorite New TV Drama	Reign
	Nominated	Monte-Carlo Television Festival	Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series	Torrance Coombs
	Nominated	Monte-Carlo Television Festival	Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series	Adelaide Kane
	2nd Place	Favorite Television Show	Show's Reviews!: Favorite Television Show	Reign
	Won	Eonline's Best Ever TV Awards	Best New Show	Reign
	Nominated	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV Female Breakout Star	Adelaide Kane
	Nominated	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV: Male Breakout Star	Toby Regbo
	Nominated	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV: Breakout Show	Reign
	2nd Place	Favorite Obsession	Fall TV Obsession Tournament	Reign
	3rd Place	Golden Globe Nominations Tournament	Golden Globe Nomination	Adelaide Kane
	Won	Hollywood Post Alliance Awards	Outstanding Color Grading – Television	Pilot David Cole - Modern VideoFilm
2015	22nd Place (out of 64 couples)	Top TV Couple	TV's Top Couple Tournament	Frary
	Won	Best Baddie	Best Baddies of the Season Tournament	Queen Catherine
	Won	Love Triangle	Love Triangle You're So Over	Mary, Francis and Condé

Reception

Response to the show has been mixed, with various critics highlighting the show's focus on romance and teenage drama instead of historical accuracy. A number of reviewers have compared it to Gossip Girl, with similar emphasis on fashion, drama, and soap opera antics. The review of the pilot by The New York Times described Reign a strong candidate as a "camp classic", calling it fun and acknowledging its historical inaccuracies. The reviewer of The A.V. Club described the show as "an alternate-universe fanfiction than anything pretending to approach history", calling the show camp and fun. The Miami Herald describes the show's opening episodes as "surprisingly entertaining", with Adelaide Kane's portrayal of Mary as "a teenager with a dawning realization that her royal caprices can have unexpectedly grim consequences offers an interesting take on the traditional coming-of-age story". The review of Flavorwire described the show as "fantastical princess wish-fulfilment", a guilty pleasure that is relaxing to watch, and that its historical inaccuracy is to its advantage: "There is something about abandoning all pretense of authenticity that gives this story a lightness it badly needs; dead-seriousness just isn’t something that plays all that well at the moment." Community Voices highlighted Reign as an interesting departure from The CW's other shows, but describes it as stuck in a rut, making it difficult to sustain a show that's "built on a binary premise: either Mary and Francis are coming together or they are drifting apart." A review by a The Los Angeles Times critic is more critical, saying that the "sexed-up version of high school with horses" show "does not deserve" its main character, who is described as a "The Princess Diaries knock-off", but acknowledges that the show is self-aware of its position as a guilty pleasure. USA Today is also critical, describing the show as anachronistic and "dumbing down" history for the sake of entertainment.

Ratings

Main Article: Ratings

Season	Timeslot (Eastern Time)	No. of episodes	Premiered		Ended		TV season	Rank	Viewers (in millions)	18–49 rating (average)
			Date	Premiere viewers (in millions)	Date	Finale viewers (in millions)
1	Thursday 9:00 PM	22	October 17, 2013	1.98	May 15, 2014	1.24	2013–2014	#158	1.94	0.9/3
2		22	October 2, 2014	1.01	TBA	TBA	2014–2015	TBA	TBA	TBA

Broadcast

Reign was announced on The CW's 2013 autumn line-up on May 10, 2013, placing it in the Thursday timeslot following The Vampire Diaries, its biggest hit in young women demographic. The show had its series premiere on October 17, 2013, in the U.S. In Canada, the series airs a day earlier on M3 in simulcast with The CW on CTV Two and on !E Canada.

In New Zealand, Prime premiered the show Thursdays at 9:30 p.m., starting November 21, 2013. In the Philippines, Reign started broadcasting on ETC starting May 30, 2014. In Croatia, Reign is scheduled for Sunday evening on HRT 1 at 10:00 pm. In Australia, Reign was originally scheduled to premiere on Eleven, but premiered on Fox8 on August 5, 2014.

Official Sites

1. http://www.cwtv.com/shows/reign
2. https://www.facebook.com/cwreign
3. https://twitter.com/CWReign
4. http://cwreign.tumblr.com/