Why ‘Heartland’ Season 15 Used an Almost Entirely New Crew and the Challenges That Presented

Heartland stars Amber Marshall as Amy Fleming, a woman who heals traumatized horses through natural horsemanship. Season 15 of Heartland premiered on CBC in October 2021. In an interview with BriefTake, Marshall shared some behind-the-scenes details about the making of the TV show‘s 15th season.

The crew of ‘Heartland’ experienced a ‘big turnover’ before season 15

As a long-running show, fans are used to seeing the same actors and beloved characters return each season. In a 2021 interview with BriefTake, Marshall revealed that some long-term crew members were unable to come back to work on season 15 of Heartland.

“We had quite a big turnover in our crew. Alberta’s film and television industry is booming, which is amazing. And most of our crew from the previous years, and some who have been with us for all 15 years — or all 14 years I should say — they were tied up on other projects,” Marshall shared.

She continued, “And there was lots of opportunity in the industry for people to step up and step out of their comfort zone, and anyone who had experience on other projects got to move up and do some of these big blockbuster, I don’t know if you still use that word, shows.”

Amber Marshall thinks this presented ‘a little bit of a challenge’

Speaking with BriefTake, Marshall admitted that having so many new crew members “was a little bit of a challenge,” especially when it came to working with the horses on the TV series.

“And so Heartland saw 83% new people. And in the beginning, this was a little bit of a challenge because not only are we really good friends with all of the cast and crew, and this is a group that has been so unified over the last decade and a half, but there’s very different things that Heartland does that a regular, or a show that doesn’t involve animals would do,” the actor told BriefTake.

Marshall continued, “Just learning how to move around the horses, where you can set up cameras and lights and things that won’t affect what a horse sees and if it wants to step any closer and things like that. Or having a boom operator who’s waving a mic around.”

Amber Marshall is ‘really proud’ of the ‘Heartland’ cast and crew

While the new crew members had to quickly adjust to working with animals on set, Marshall is proud of what everyone was able to accomplish with season 15 of Heartland.

“So we were not only working with new people to Heartland, we were working with a lot of new people to the industry. And I’m really proud of our team. I think that these episodes are incredible,” Marshall told BriefTake. “I don’t think that fans will ever notice that it was a different group of people, a different crew. So everyone stepped up very fast. I think this was the year of growth for a lot of people on the show.”

Season 16 of Heartland is currently filming.