{"id":182465,"date":"2025-12-13T11:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T11:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/182465\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T11:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T11:22:07","slug":"breaking-news-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:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/182465\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking News &#8211; 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>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>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&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>SERIES TO PREMIERE EXCLUSIVELY ON HALLMARK+ IN MARCH 2026&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n &#13;\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/hallmark20251212.jpg\" border=\"0\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>BURBANK, CA &#8211; December 12, 2025 &#8211; 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 series takes place in 1874 and explores the early days of the settlement that later becomes Hope Valley. &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;\n<\/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 (Firefly Lane) as Hattie&#8217;s daughter, Olivia, and Lachlan Quarmby (Providence Falls) as Constable Alexander Vaughn, one of the first members of the newly created Royal Canadian Mounted Police.&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;\n<\/p>\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.&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hope Valley: 1874 gives us a wonderful opportunity to further explore the universe of When Calls the Heart 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;&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>A longtime fan-favorite series, When Calls the Heart premiered on Hallmark Channel in 2014 and was renewed for a 14th season on December 2. The series finished its 12th season as the #1 most-watched program this year to-date on entertainment cable among key demographics. &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p># # #&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; &#13; HALLMARK EXPANDS THE UNIVERSE OF &#8220;WHEN CALLS THE HEART&#8221; WITH PREQUEL SERIES &#8220;HOPE VALLEY: 1874&#8221;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-182465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}