Filming in Vancouver: The X-Files, iZombie, Beyond, Colony, Ice, and more

This week, there’s a ton of stuff happening in the city when it comes to productions for the home screen. Basically, it’s a TV fan’s dream come true. In other words, if you love television, then you oughta be here right now.

There are a few sci-fi series, a revived paranormal investigative show, fantasy, drama, comedy, crime, and zombies. What more could you want?

Let’s take a look at all the activity going down on the streets of Hollywood North right now and coming up soon.

Earlier this week, The X-Files started filming its second revival event series on August 8 and will shoot 10 episodes for Season 11 until December 21.

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny are back in the saddle as special FBI agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder on this paranormal investigative series. Creator and executive producer Chris Carter is also back on board.

Before the series relocated to Los Angeles by its sixth season, this is the city where it got its start, and Vancouver’s look contributed to the mysterious ambiance of the first five seasons.

Elsewhere in the city, Siren began filming Season 1 on August 2 and continues until November 22.

The series pilot was shot in town last year in September under the name of The Deep.

Directed by Nick Copus, the fantasy-drama is set in the small town of Bristol Cove, where a lost and mysterious girl (Eline Powell) turns up.

Her appearance is soon followed by the arrival of mermaids, whose legend has long been a part of the town.

However, these aren’t the sweet and benevolent beings we’ve seen in animated films but predatory creatures who wage a battle against humans over the right to the ocean.

The cast includes Alex Roe, Fola Evans-Akingbola, Ian Verdun, Rena Owen, and Sibongile Mlambo.

In other nonhuman news, here come the iZombies!

iZombie is back in town to film Season 4 on August 8, continuing until January 18.

This crime-dramedy stars Rose McIver as a Seattle medical resident who is turned into a zombie. However, upon discovering she is able to gain flashbacks from murder victims by eating their brains, she teams up with the police to help solve crimes.

The cast also includes Malcolm Goodwin, Rahul Kohli, Robert Buckley, David Anders, and Aly Michalka.

The new season will follow how citizens of the “New Seattle” will cope with humans and zombies co-existing together within a walled-in community.

This season, Robert Knepper (Prison Break), who has had a recurring role since the first season, has become a series regular as Angus, a successful businessman who is disappointed in his son (David Anders).

Alas, Angus will be up to no good, and have some pro-zombie people backing him up.

Meanwhile, a human terrorist organization will also create problems for human and zombie co-existence.

Season 4 will be broadcast in 2018.

New to Vancouver, Life Sentence started shooting its first season today (August 9), and keeps on going until January 12.

This comedy-drama revolves around Stella Abbott, played by Lucy Hale, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

When she finds out she’s been cured, she then has to learn to accept all the choices she had made when she decided to live like there was no tomorrow.

Rounding out the cast are Elliot Knight, Dylan Walsh, Gillian Vigman, Jayson Blair, Brooke Lyons, and Carlos PenaVega.

Another TV series new to Vancouver is Colony, which is relocating from Los Angeles. It starts shooting Season 3 here on September 7 and continues until February 16.

Set in the near-future in a Los Angeles under military occupation after an extraterrestrial invasion, this series focuses on a family struggling to stay together while contending with the new reality of their society.

The cast includes Josh Holloway, Sarah Wayne Callies, Peter Jacobson, Amanda Righetti, Tory Kittles, Alex Neustaedter, Isabella Crovetti-Cramp, and Jacob Buster.

Also on the sci-fi front, Beyond wraps up Season 2 on Friday (August 11), having started back on April 24.

The series follows what happens when Holden Matthews, played by Vancouver’s Burkely Duffield, wakes up from a 12-year coma. He discovers that not only has the world around him changed but he now has superhuman abilities that thrust him into a conspiracy.

Among the cast members are Dilan Gwyn, Jeff Pierre, Jonathan Whitesell, Michael McGrady, and Romy Rosemont.

Still in time for the heat of summer, Ice is also back. It began filming Season 2 on August 8 and will continue until September 26.

In this crime-drama series created by Robert Munic and Antoine Fuqua, Vancouver plays Los Angeles as the show explores the lives of a multi-generational family business of diamond merchants as they compete against powerful and violent rivals.

The cast includes Jeremy Sisto, Cam Gigandet, Raymond J. Barry, Ray Winstone, Audrey Marie Anderson, Canadian star Donald Sutherland, and more.

Phew, that was a long list! Well, that’s all for the moment but tune in again next week as we’ll give you even more deets on what’s shooting in Vancouver.