BBC's 'Orphan Black' creators hype debut

BBC America's upcoming addition to its Supernatural Saturday block, "Orphan Black," is sounding more intriguing than ever.

Not much was originally known about the new series, set to debut in March on BBC America, save for the title and its science-fiction roots. At a Television Critics Association panel, the showrunners explained that the series will revolve around Sarah, an orphan and constant outcast whose life changes when she witnesses the death of what appears to be her unknown identical twin. Sarah assumes her double's identity, from her boyfriend to her bank account, before discovering that she and the dead woman are actually clones... and they are not the only ones.

Series co-creator and writer Graeme Manson claims the series is a long-time in the making. "Orphan Black was born ten years ago when my creative partner John Fawcett said to me, 'wouldn’t it be cool if you were standing in a train station and you looked across the tracks and saw yourself and as your eyes met – your other self threw themself onto the tracks."

The writers played with the concept for some time, originally considering it as a feature before extending to a more serialized concept. "It’s a series long question of who am I?" Manson says. "And not just our main character, but her team. There are unlimited clones, and its a story that’s a mystery and a conspiracy. We are huge fans of The X-Files where each time you get an answer and a door closes, one more opens. So we explore: who’s the original, and who am I? Who created us?"

He continued, citing a David Cronenberg classic as inspiration for the series: "'Dead Ringers' inspired us as well, we like creepy. The show is scary and the show is a lot of fun. The clones just inspored us because it suggests identity crisis, on identity crisis, on identity crisis and all those questions of nature versus nurture, and that’s what was inspiring to us."

"Orphan" will premiere March 30th on BBC America.