The day has come, Hearties. When Calls The Heart Season 8 has finally wrapped filming, and Erin Krakow celebrated the Hallmark series wrapping in a way that one only could during a wild year such as 2020. The shoot went on and on over the course of several months, but the Hallmark series is finally in the can, and it came with no shutdown.
Erin Krakow was the most notable person to take to social media about the show wrapping, though many of her co-workers and other individuals who are involved with the Hallmark show also spoke out. For her part, Krakow talked about wrapping always being “bittersweet,” also touching on how 2020 has been different but how everyone on the series put their best feet forward.
Yesterday we picture wrapped Season 8 of When Calls The Heart. It’s hard to describe the emotions I’m feeling: pride, happiness, relief, longing - it’s always bittersweet. This season more than ever, our WCTH family took excellent care of each other and I’m so grateful. That said, despite the pandemic things really didn’t feel THAT different. And that’s because we’ve ALWAYS cared for each other. Fewer hugs this season, but still so much love! I just love our cast & crew, and I’m already sad to have left our sweet little Hope Valley bubble. So I sincerely hope we’ll all be back together soon filming more WCTH!
This is more of a victory than you might think. Sure, When Calls The Heart films in Canada where rates have been lower, but rates are on the rise in many places and a lot of TV shows haven’t been immune to having to quarantine people on set or even shut down during the tumult of the last few months.
When Calls the Heart also shoots for a reasonably long period of time. This year, production went on for 78 days and spanned from July to November, according to executive producer Brian Bird. Thus, I’m sure making it to the end of any new season is an extremely good feeling, though this one likely felt particularly unique. Here’s a look at some of the cast in pajamas as they were leaving the set, as pajamas in public also seem to be a major 2020 thing.
Hallmark was one of the first brands to go back into production after the months-long shutdown earlier this year. The network did it by keeping people in “pods” whereupon stars and crews all worked together as a unit and continued working together in some cases across multiple projects. In additions, masks and safety precautions were added on set. Plus, Hallmark stars were asked to quarantine for two weeks before they went to work.
So, the network was doing a lot to make sure that productions were able to run smoothly and efficiently so that people could get their Christmas movie fix this year. That lineup has already started rolling out on Hallmark, with When Calls The Heart’s next set of episodes expected in 2021. It doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon, either, as the EP has joked he hopes the Hallmark series beats The Simpsons’ TV record. And Erin Krakow wasn’t the only one to mention the series was wrapped with a sweet post. Series lead Pascale Hutton also shared a similar sentiment.
It’s also worth noting that in one of the posts on social media from Erin Krakow, she is hugging herself and also captions her comment with an intriguing tidbit, “Oh and btw - Elizabeth won’t have to hug herself much longer…” Take a look at the full post to catch that last little plot-oriented tidbit.
Erin Krakow’s character Elizabeth dealt with a blow when her first husband died on When Calls The Heart a few seasons back. The move happened because Daniel Lissing wanted to leave the show, but it also served to give Elizabeth the chance to find love again. More recently on the series, she’s been choosing between saloon owner Lucas and another Mountie, Nathan. That love triangle has been a thing for a while, so it would be nice to see the storyline evolve, though it leads me to wonder what’s next for the series after Elizabeth is settled? We’ll find out soon enough, but unfortunately, there won’t be a When Calls the Heart Christmas movie to tide things over until Season 8 this year.
