Brace yourself Hope Valley faithfuls: Hallmark is expanding the When Calls the Heart universe with an all-new prequel series.
Bethany Joy Lenz, Benjamin Ayres and Jill Hennessy are set to star in Hope Valley: 1874, which begins production next week, Hallmark announced on Friday, December 12.
“Hope Valley: 1874 gives us a wonderful opportunity to further explore the universe of When Calls the Heart and build a deeper world around this show for our devoted fans, who have helped make it one of the most successful and enduring series on television today,” Hallmark Media head of programming, Michelle Vicary, said in a press release. “We’re excited for the Hearties to join us as we tell this rich origin story filled with the kind of heart, community and hope they know and love.”
The series, set in 1874, will premiere in March 2026 exclusively on Hallmark+. During its eight-episode run, the show will highlight the early days of the settlement before it was dubbed Hope Valley.
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Lenz, 44, will portray Rebecca Clarke as she travels from her home in Chicago with her 11-year-old daughter through the Western Canadian frontier.
“When her wagon breaks down, she has no choice but to accept help from local rancher and confirmed bachelor, Tom Moore (Ayres),” the logline reads. “Despite Rebecca’s best intentions to remain unattached, the future she dreams of for her and her daughter along with the people she meets in this fledgling town — including the guarded Tom and tenacious pioneer woman Hattie Quinn (Hennessy) — ultimately compel her to put down roots and make a fresh start.”
The prequel will also star Roan Curtis as Hattie’s daughter, Olivia, Lachlan Quarmby as Constable Alexander Vaughn, who according to the network is “one of the first members of the newly created Royal Canadian Mounted Police.”
Hallmark teased that viewers will meet “adventurous ranchers, gold prospectors and early pioneers” throughout the series, “who worked together to navigate and embrace the changes of a new era and ultimately build a small, close-knit community in the rugged and hopeful pioneer era.”
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Prior to Hope Valley: 1874, Lenz and Ayres, 48, and Curtis, 28, have all starred in Hallmark rom-coms. Quarmby made his network debut earlier this year in the three-part Providence Falls movie series, while Hennessy is new to the Hallmark family.
Fans will have to wait and see which — if any — connections the Hope Valley: 1874 characters have to the beloved residents they’ve come to know on When Calls the Heart.
In the meantime, viewers can tune for season 13 of WCTH when it kicks off in January. When the Hallmark Channel series premiered in 2014, it followed schoolteacher Elizabeth Thatcher, now Elizabeth Thornton, played by Erin Krakow as she migrated from the big city to teach in the mining town of Hope Valley out west.
When WCTH returns, Elizabeth and boyfriend Mountie Nathan Grant (Kevin McGarry) will be living in Cape Fullerton as her son, Little Jack (Hyland Goodrich), gets treatment for his diabetes.
“We don’t get to spend a lot of time outside of Hope Valley, so it’s always pretty special when we do,” Krakow, 41, exclusively told Us Weekly in November of what’s to come. “We get to see how they have spent the past summer and how it has impacted their relationship, both romantically and sort of as this pseudo blended family, pre marriage and and it’s really lovely.”
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The actress — who is pregnant in real life with her and costar Ben Rosenbaum’s first baby — teased that Elizabeth and Nathan will both be a little different when they return to Hope Valley.
“Nathan has yet again embraced the mustache life, which Kevin is so fond of,” Krakow said with a laugh. “I mean, he looks great either way, folks. And Elizabeth changes her look a bit as well.”
She added: “I think that they’re both influenced by spending some time in the big city, and they bring that back to Hope Valley. So yeah, a lot of interesting changes for them.”
When Calls the Heart returns to Hallmark Channel for season 13 on Sunday, January 4, at 8 p.m. ET.
