Nana Visitor Reveals Why She Left James Cameron’s Dark Angel After Season 1

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Nana Visitor shared the story behind the show Dark Angel, a science fiction series created by James Cameron and starring Jessica Alba. After playing Major Kira Nerys on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for seven seasons, Visitor joined Dark Angel as the antagonist Dr. Elizabeth Renfro near the end of its first season.

The series Dark Angel takes place in a future, ruined Seattle. It follows Max Guevara (Jessica Alba), a teenager created through genetic engineering who is on the run from the government facility she escaped as a child. Max teams up with Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly), a determined journalist who reports on injustice, and together they help others while Max searches for her lost siblings, also survivors of the secret X-5 program.

Nana Visitor recently spoke with ScreenRant about her role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and her upcoming appearance at the ST: CHI – Trek to Chicago convention. During the interview, she discussed her short time on the show Dark Angel and explained what became of her character, the villain. Here’s what she had to say:

After Star Trek: Deep Space Nine finished, I really enjoyed the show Dark Angel. You joined in the first season as the villain, Dr. Elizabeth Renfro. Do you have any memories of working on that show?

It was a really hectic period for me. I was performing in ‘Chicago’ on Broadway, and they’d fly me to Vancouver to film all my ‘Deep Space Nine’ scenes in a couple of days. ‘Chicago’ would then give me a day off, and I’d fly back to continue the show. I kept that up for a while, all while raising my two young kids, who were eight and four at the time. I was completely exhausted and running on fumes. I vividly remember arriving in Vancouver and getting a massage, hoping it would help, but the moment the masseuse touched me, I had a panic attack. I just blurted out, ‘Don’t touch me!’ I’m sure she was confused, but I was so sleep-deprived and overwhelmed trying to balance both jobs and still be there for my children. It was just too much, and that memory really sticks with me.

Jessica Alba was a joy to work with. Meeting James Cameron was incredible! He explained my character’s backstory – she’s actually over a hundred years old and using DNA technology to stay young. That’s why she’s pursuing the children in the story. It was a really interesting concept.

I honestly can’t recall who was in charge of the show back then, but they decided to focus entirely on younger characters. They let go of everyone over 40, including Cameron, and the show changed drastically. That meant I, along with others, lost my job. I really think if James Cameron had been able to continue with his original vision, the show could have been something special.

Dark Angel ran for two seasons on Fox, from 2000 to 2002. It was James Cameron’s first television series as creator and executive producer, so expectations were high. But the show, a complex science fiction drama, was costly to make, and viewership declined during its first season. By the time Nana Visitor was introduced as the main villain, the show was in danger of being canceled.

Fox ordered a second season of Dark Angel, but with significant changes. The show shifted its focus to the younger, genetically engineered X-5 characters, and introduced Joshua (Jensen Ackles) as a rebellious foil to Max. The second season largely abandoned the storylines from the first, instead centering on a new mystery: the origins of the X-5 program. As Nana Visitor explained, many of the villains from season one, including Renfro and Donald Lydecker (John Savage), were either removed from the show or reduced to smaller, occasional roles.

Nana Visitor played Dr. Elizabeth Renfro on Dark Angel for six episodes, but her character was killed off early in the second season. The show was intended to continue for a third season, but Fox unexpectedly canceled it. The network had hoped to improve ratings by shifting the focus to Max, the younger X-5 characters, and introducing more villains with mutant-like abilities, but this didn’t work.

Although James Cameron wasn’t heavily involved throughout the second season of Dark Angel, he did direct the 90-minute season finale, “Freak Nation.” The show ended with an unresolved storyline, and Jessica Alba recently said she’d be willing to reprise her role in a Dark Angel reboot, but only if Cameron also participated.

Wow, it’s wild to hear about Nana Visitor’s time on Dark Angel! It sounds like things were a bit crazy behind the scenes, but she definitely remembers it fondly after playing Major Kira on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for so long. And honestly, learning about Dr. Renfro after all these years – almost 25 years! – is such a fun little piece of trivia for us Dark Angel fans. It’s great to hear her share these stories!

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2025-11-20 03:42