Television

TRICKSTER | New surreal drama coming to CBC this Fall

Watch the official trailer for Trickster, an Indigenous-led series based on the best-selling novel Son of a Trickster.

Unlike anything you've ever seen before.

TRICKSTER | Official Trailer

4 years ago
Duration 1:57
Official Trailer for CBC Gem's Trickster

Talking ravens, doppelgängers, and skin monsters — the first look at CBC's Trickster is finally here. 

The other-worldly series coming to CBC and CBC Gem stars newcomer Joel Oulette as Jared, an Indigenous teen struggling to keep his dysfunctional family above water. He holds down an after-school job and sells ecstasy to support his partying mom, Maggie (Crystle Lightning), who self-medicates an undiagnosed mental illness, and his unemployable dad, Phil (Craig Lauzon).

But when Jared starts seeing strange things, his already chaotic life is turned upside down.

Joel Oulette and Anna Lambe in CBC's Trickster. (CBC)

"I feel like with this TV show it's going to have a lot of people more in tuned with how misjudged Native people are and how much they can look up to how they live," says Oulette. 

This unique series based on the novel Son of a Trickster was created by award-winning filmmaker Michelle Latimer (RISE, Nuuca) and Tony Elliott (Orphan Black), and directed by Latimer.

"We had an Indigenous person in every department of the show," says Anna Lambe, who plays the brave and spontaneous character Sarah. Lambe says Trickster was "a surreal experience" that solidified her love for acting.

Anna Lambe and Joel Oulette star in The Trickster, a CBC television series adapted from Eden Robinson's novel Son of a Trickster. (CBC, Doubleday Canada)

"It was like being surrounded by your cousins, being surrounded by aunties and uncles, it was a community above all things," says Lambe

Kalani Queypo in CBC's Trickster. (CBC)

But what Lambe is most excited for is her parents to see the show, and for how Indigenous youth will take it in.

"It's really a good feeling to be young Indigenous people on the screen where we don't see ourselves represented a lot of the time," says Lambe.

(CBC)

Additional cast includes Kalani Queypo (Jamestown), Joel Thomas Hynes (Little Dog), Gail Maurice (Cardinal) Georgina Lightning (Blackstone), and Craig Lauzon. 

Watch the official trailer for Trickster: