{"id":109288,"date":"2025-12-12T17:46:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T22:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mortystv.com\/blog\/?p=109288"},"modified":"2025-12-12T17:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T22:46:08","slug":"hallmark-expands-the-universe-of-when-calls-the-heart-with-prequel-series-hope-valley-1874-starring-bethany-joy-lenz-benjamin-ayres-and-jill-hennessy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mortystv.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/12\/hallmark-expands-the-universe-of-when-calls-the-heart-with-prequel-series-hope-valley-1874-starring-bethany-joy-lenz-benjamin-ayres-and-jill-hennessy\/","title":{"rendered":"Hallmark Expands the Universe of &#8220;When Calls the Heart&#8221; with Prequel Series &#8220;Hope Valley: 1874&#8221; Starring Bethany Joy Lenz, Benjamin Ayres, and Jill Hennessy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-109289\" src=\"https:\/\/mortystv.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Hope-Valley-1874-20251212.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mortystv.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Hope-Valley-1874-20251212.webp 720w, https:\/\/mortystv.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Hope-Valley-1874-20251212-300x104.webp 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/>Hallmark is expanding the universe of <em><strong>When Calls the Heart<\/strong><\/em> with the new series <em><strong>Hope Valley: 1874<\/strong><\/em>, which begins production next week in Vancouver, BC, and will premiere in March 2026 exclusively on Hallmark+. Starring Bethany Joy Lenz (<em>A Biltmore Christmas<\/em>), Benjamin Ayres (<em>The Santa Class<\/em>), and Jill Hennessy (<em>City on a Hill<\/em>), the eight-episode series takes place in 1874 and explores the early days of the settlement that later becomes Hope Valley.<\/p>\n<p>Lenz portrays Rebecca Clarke, who travels from her home city of Chicago to the Western Canadian frontier with her 11-year-old daughter. But when her wagon breaks down, she has no choice but to accept help from local rancher and confirmed bachelor, Tom Moore (Ayres). Despite Rebecca&#8217;s best intentions to remain unattached, the future she dreams of for her and her daughter, along with the people she meets in this fledgling town &#8211; including the guarded Tom and tenacious pioneer woman Hattie Quinn (Hennessy) &#8211; ultimately compel her to put down roots and make a fresh start. Also starring in the series are Roan Curtis (<em>Firefly Lane<\/em>) as Hattie&#8217;s daughter, Olivia, and Lachlan Quarmby (<em>Providence Falls<\/em>) as Constable Alexander Vaughn, one of the first members of the newly created Royal Canadian Mounted Police.<\/p><div id=\"morty-636667437\" class=\"morty-content morty-entity-placement\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-4937602850188786\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-4937602850188786\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"5227734695\" \ndata-ad-layout=\"in-article\"\ndata-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Viewers will also meet the adventurous ranchers, gold prospectors, and early pioneers who worked together to navigate and embrace the changes of a new era and ultimately build a small, close-knit community in the rugged and hopeful pioneer era.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>Hope Valley: 1874<\/em> gives us a wonderful opportunity to further explore the universe of <em>When Calls the Heart<\/em> and build a deeper world around this show for our devoted fans, who have helped make it one of the most successful and enduring series on television today,&#8221; began Michelle Vicary, Head of Programming, Hallmark Media. &#8220;We&#8217;re excited for the Hearties to join us as we tell this rich origin story filled with the kind of heart, community, and hope they know and love.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A longtime fan-favorite series, <em>When Calls the Heart<\/em> premiered on Hallmark Channel in 2014 and was renewed for a 14th season on December 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hallmark is expanding the universe of When Calls the Heart with the new series Hope Valley: 1874, which begins production next week in Vancouver, BC, and will premiere in March 2026 exclusively on Hallmark+. Starring Bethany Joy Lenz (A Biltmore Christmas), Benjamin Ayres (The Santa Class), and Jill Hennessy (City on a Hill), the eight-episode [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":"The eight-episode series begins production next week in Vancouver, BC and will premiere in March 2026 exclusively on Hallmark+."},"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[12144,8430,640,27960,27961,1879,11840],"class_list":["post-109288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv_news","tag-benjamin-ayres","tag-bethany-joy-lenz","tag-hallmark","tag-hope-valley-1874","tag-jill-hennessy","tag-prequel","tag-when-calls-the-heart"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hallmark Expands the Universe of &quot;When Calls the Heart&quot; with Prequel Series &quot;Hope Valley: 1874&quot; Starring Bethany Joy Lenz, Benjamin Ayres, and Jill Hennessy - Morty&#039;s TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mortystv.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/12\/hallmark-expands-the-universe-of-when-calls-the-heart-with-prequel-series-hope-valley-1874-starring-bethany-joy-lenz-benjamin-ayres-and-jill-hennessy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hallmark Expands the Universe of &quot;When Calls the Heart&quot; with Prequel Series &quot;Hope Valley: 1874&quot; Starring Bethany Joy Lenz, Benjamin Ayres, and Jill Hennessy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hallmark is expanding the universe of When Calls the Heart with the new series Hope Valley: 1874, which begins production next week in Vancouver, BC, and will premiere in March 2026 exclusively on Hallmark+. 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