When it comes to the Crave series Yaga, there’s plenty to love when it comes to this series.
You’ve got the plot, where a private investigator is trying to find out what happened to a young fishery heir before things turn spooky. You also have the showrunner Kat Sandler, who created and premiered the play in 2019. And then there’s the cast that includes Schitt’s Creek’ Noah Reid, Letterkenny’s Clark Backo, the iconic Carrie-Anne Moss, and Heated Rivalry’s Hudson Williams. And though we don’t know much about his character yet, Sam Krochmal is an essential part of the spookiest show of 2026.
Fangirlish sat down with the Leo Award winning actor to talk about Yaga, what sets the Canadian film and TV industry apart, working with Hudson Williams and more. But to set things up, I really wanted to talk about his character Billy. Because while I know things about Reid, Backo, Moss, and Williams characters, we don’t really know much about Krochmal’s Billy. So what can we expect?
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“I play Officer Billy Granger,” Krochmal shared, “He’s a young rookie detective helping out with the main investigation in Whittock. And I think he’s a little in over his head. He’s trying so desperately to do things right, and he’s often failing to rise to the occasion. I imagine that before this, he was probably writing parking tickets. Like that was kind of his duty.”
When Reid’s character Rapp arrives in Whittock, he pairs up with Backo’s character Carson. And as their investigation leads them to Moss’ Katherine, the world starts shifting around them. Because this isn’t just a simple investigation into Hudson’s character Henry disappearing. There’s something dark in Whittok. As for where Billy fits in, “Billy often tries really hard and maybe fails to deliver. But I think his arc over the show, he does have some moments where he is genuinely helpful and assisting in the investigation.”
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And since Billy is an officer, Krochmal spent plenty of time in the crossfire of Reid and Backo’s characters. From what we’ve seen of the show in the first two episodes of Yaga, they’re amazing. And we wanted to know if they were just as incredible on set. “I was mostly just kind of watching in awe as they do their work. I think that actors like that, that are so seasoned and so experienced bring such an ease to set and it creates such an environment of like play and relaxed energy.”
When it comes to the Canadian film industry, they’re a pretty tight-knit group. And to the delight of fans, there are various moments where your favorite Canadian actors are on the same show or have done a short film together. For Krochmal, that’s true in particular with his co-star Hudson Williams, who has since skyrocketed in popularity due to Heated Rivalry. Before Yaga they worked together in the proof of concept short Public Swim. Williams was the lead’s crush. And Krochmal was the self assured lifeguard in an iconic red crop top.
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The fact that they’re now on a highly anticipated Crave show together that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is surreal for Krochmal. “The fact that him and I had known each other and had worked on, you know, a little scrappy indie projects. I’m proud of him. I’m proud of how far he’s come and how he’s grown as an artist and handled this skyrocket to stardom with such grace.”
Krochmal added, “What a special full circle moment to get to come back, you know, five, six years later and work together again on something like this. Yeah, it was a really happy reunion and just cool to see how far we’ve both come.” And talking about Williams obviously led us to talk about the success of Heated Rivalry itself, with Krochmal saying, “Off the black of Heated Rivalry and seeing how that’s kind of forced Canadian content into the spotlight a little bit. I hope that Yaga can continue to push that narrative. And I hope we see a whole ton of new original Canadian shows and movies.”
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As a US based reviewer myself, there has always been something scrappy about Canadian film and TV in comparison to the polish of the Hollywood machine. And it’s led me to fall in love with shows like Heated Rivalry, Schitt’s Creek, and Wynonna Earp. But I’ve also enjoyed other Canadian shows like Lost Girl, Continuum, and Killjoys while knowing that I’m barely scratching the surface of Canadian film and TV. So I wanted to ask Krochmal what he thinks makes Canadian film and TV so different.
He said, “I think there is a kind of a special sparkle around Canadian film and TV. I think that there’s this unspoken pact, almost this scrappiness, this shared belief that we kind of have to band together in order to get Canadian content in front of eyeballs that need to see it.” And when compared to Hollywood, he added, “A lot of American television can sometimes kind of just turn into like a machine that’s pumping out shows. I think often it’s easy for people to kind of lose the heart and the soul of it and kind of surrender to the commercial aspect of it.”
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Canadian film and TV is different in this aspect. “I think with a lot of these Canadian shows, because they’re so strapped, because we’re working with small budgets, everyone is coming in with their best and people are bought into the concept and they’re showing up and there’s passion and there’s this shared buy-in that I think you see in the final product. And I think that’s really, really special. And I hope that we continue to have that fire in our bellies. Cause I think that’s imperative. And I think that’s kind of the key to making really cool shit that people are going to want to see.”
Considering the fire I’ve seen when it comes to Yaga, I couldn’t agree more.
Yaga premieres Friday, October 23, 2026 on AMC+
