Witches and villains have always been cooler than princesses. At least, that’s something Kat Sandler and I seem to agree on during our Zoom conversation. Think about it. Ursula was having a considerably better time than Ariel, Maleficent had more going on than a sleeping princess, and the Sanderson sisters were arguably the most entertaining part ofHocus Pocus. Give us a complicated woman with questionable morals, a little magic and an elaborate origin story over another damsel waiting to be rescued any day.
When I ask Sandler about her favourite witches from pop culture, she doesn’t hesitate. Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Charmed sisters, the Sanderson sisters and the witches fromThe Witches of Eastwickall make the list. She admits that she is rather non-discriminatory when it comes to witches, and honestly, I get it.
But what begins as a shared appreciation for fictional witches soon turns into a conversation about something far more interesting: why powerful, unconventional women have historically been portrayed as figures to fear.
For Sandler, the creator of YAGA(streaming on Lionsgate Play India from November 6), a dark, genre-bending series inspired by the Slavic folklore figure Baba Yaga, the witch is not simply a supernatural character. She is a woman society has decided to fear. “Maybe we’ve been burning the wrong witches for a very long time,” she tells me.
It’s an idea that drives YAGA, which Sandler adapted from her own stage play. The series takes a familiar archetype, the dangerous, mysterious witch, and asks what happens when the woman at the centre of the story gets to write her own rules.
Historically, women who stepped outside the boundaries of what society considered acceptable were often labelled dangerous. Their knowledge, independence, sexuality and refusal to conform could make them targets of suspicion and persecution. Rather than presenting the witch as another misunderstood heroine in need of redemption, Sandler allows her to be morally ambiguous, unpredictable and unapologetically powerful.
The inspiration is surprisingly personal.Sandler recalls a conversation with an older actress friend, who told her that there comes a point in a woman’s life when she simply becomes invisible, particularly to men. What if, Sandler wondered, that invisibility could become a
It’s a particularly compelling question in an entertainment industry that continues to celebrate ageing male stars while often placing far narrower expectations on women.
“I think there’s so much power in age and experience for women. It’s a privilege to age, and I think there’s magic in that, too,” Sandler says. Pointing to Jennifer Lopez and herYAGAstar Carrie-Anne Moss, she talks about how women in their fifties and sixties are challenging the idea that desirability has an expiry date. “We don’t stop having sex after 30,” she adds.
And that is perhaps one of the show’s most refreshing ideas: women don’t have to become less sexual, less complicated or less interesting simply because they’re getting older.
Sandler’s approach to writing women is equally refreshing. Growing up watching television antiheroes such as Dexter Morgan, Hannibal Lecter and Tony Soprano, she became interested in the double standards around how audiences receive morally questionable characters. These men could be deeply unpleasant, even downright terrible, and still command an audience’s affection. Women, on the other hand, have traditionally been expected to be good, agreeable and, above all, likeable.
“Can we make women that do bad things, and we don’t necessarily like them, but we’re entertained by them?” she asks.
Enter Baba Yaga. In Slavic folklore, she is neither entirely good nor evil, but a figure who can help, punish, or even devour those who encounter her. She doesn’t owe anyone an explanation, which makes her a rather fascinating starting point for a contemporary female antihero.
And Sandler isn’t particularly interested in making her more palatable.
Turning The Male Gaze On Its Head
And then, of course, there is the sex. If there is one thing Sandler is particularly deliberate about withYAGA, it is turning the traditional male gaze on its head. The show brings together folklore, detective mysteries, dark comedy and the erotic thriller, but its approach to intimacy is far from incidental. In fact, Sandler wanted to challenge the conventions of genres that have historically turned women’s bodies into spectacles.
As we get into this part of the conversation, she admits, almost shyly, that she is blushing talking about it.
“It was really important for me to show men the way that women have been traditionally shown in those shows,” she explains.
Think of the countless thrillers where a woman’s naked body becomes a convenient visual device, sometimes before she has even been given a personality. Sandler wanted to reverse that perspective.”I want to show a beautiful, naked, dead male body washed up on shore,” she says, describing one of the deliberate visual choices in the series.
The intention isn’t simply to reverse objectification for shock value, but to question who gets to look, who gets to be desired and whose pleasure the camera is designed to prioritise.
Consent, she explains, was essential to the process, with intimacy coordinators and actors involved in developing the scenes. Sandler points to Noah Reid’s character and the first intimate scene we see him in, where he is performing oral sex on a woman. The choice is deliberate, placing female pleasure at the centre of a scene rather than treating it as secondary.
It’s a perspective that becomes particularly interesting when women are the ones shaping the narrative. In YAGA, female characters aren’t simply objects of desire. They’re the ones doing the looking, wanting, deciding and, occasionally, making a spectacular mess of things.
The Hudson Williams Effect
Which brings us to Hudson Williams. Following the global popularity of HeatedRivalry, Williams has become a phenomenon in his own right, with a particularly enthusiastic fanbase in India. His involvement has inevitably brought considerable attention toYAGA, and Sandler is grateful for the audience he brings along.
But while his newfound fame might be the obvious talking point, Sandler is far more interested in discussing what he brings to the story.
Williams plays two characters, Henry Park, whose disappearance sets the mystery in motion, and Logan Casey, his lookalike roommate. Sandler recalls an actor who arrived on set eager to collaborate, exchanging voice notes about character development and suggesting ways to make scenes bolder and more surprising.
His enthusiasm also extended to the show’s approach to intimacy and female sexuality, something Sandler was determined to explore without falling back on familiar television conventions.
“So manyoftheseinterviewquestionsarealwaysaboutHudson,andit’sreallynicetobeabletosay,yeah,heredirectsitbacktowomen,”Sandlertellsme.Shespeakswarmlyabouthim, describing an actor who understands the attention surrounding him but is equally invested in highlighting the women at the heart of the series.“It’smoreaboutthewomenofthestory,endoftheday.”
It’s an interesting dynamic. Williams’ popularity undoubtedly brings a new audience to YAGA, but Sandler is clear that the larger conversation goes well beyond its most recognisable male star.
“I’m so thrilled and grateful that Hudson came on board this project,” she says, acknowledging that his involvement has helped introduce the show’s ideas around feminism, revenge and female desire to a wider audience.
“I’ll eternally be grateful to Hudson for that.”
The Women Have The Last Laugh
You might arrive at YAGA because of Hudson Williams, but the women are the reason to stay.
At its heart, the series is interested in women who aren’t particularly concerned with being liked, who refuse to become invisible and who have little interest in conforming to anyone else’s idea of acceptable behaviour.
And perhaps that’s what makes Sandler’s reimagining of the witch so compelling. For centuries, these characters have been cast as villains, threats or cautionary tales. But what if we’ve simply been looking at them through the wrong lens?
Maybe it’s time to stop asking why the witch is so dangerous and start wondering who was afraid of her in the first place.
Also, read:
In Conversation With Hanna Puley, The Costume Designer Behind ‘Heated Rivalry’
From Gen Z To Gen X: Heated Rivalry Is Changing How India Watches Queer Stories
