‘When Calls the Heart’ Exec on Why They Didn’t Pursue a Rosemary Adoption Story

Crown Media Rosemary and Lee on When Calls the Heart.

While fans wait for news on whether “When Calls the Heart” will be renewed by Hallmark for tenth season, more details are emerging about season 9. The series’ creator, Brian Bird, recently shared why they decided to pursue a Rosemary pregnancy story rather than an adoption plot.

Bird Said They Debated Doing an Adoption Story

In an interview with JLJ Media on YouTube following the season 9 finale, Bird shared details about the decisions behind Rosemary’s pregnancy storyline.

It’s no secret to “When Calls the Heart” fans that Rosemary (portrayed by Pascale Hutton) and Lee (portrayed by Kavan Smith) have had an ongoing infertility storyline. Many fans believed this meant that the show would eventually have the couple decide to adopt. Bird said the idea was considered, but they ultimately decided that they just had to go with the unexpected pregnancy storyline.

When Rosemary first learned that she might be pregnant in season 9, she didn’t tell Lee because she wasn’t sure if the pregnancy was real. They didn’t have clear pregnancy tests during that time period, so she had to wait and see if her symptoms subsided or not. It wasn’t until the finale that she decided she truly was pregnant, and Lee ran into the streets of Hope Valley,  shouting the news with joy.

In the interview with JLJ Media, Bird explained the decision.

“When you set up a storyline about infertility, you have to pay it off somehow,” he said. “And we knew that ultimately we had to get there. There was some thought about, ‘Well maybe they adopt.’ So we played with that a little bit… So that was a possibility and that would’ve been a very heartwarming kind of story to tell.”

He noted that in some ways they were even set up for that kind of storyline, since the universe of “When Calls the Heart” includes an orphanage in Brookfield. The orphanage is the subject of the spinoff, “When Hope Calls,” that now airs on GAC Family. During the first season, Lee and Rosemary even visited the orphanage.

“That was a possibility,” Bird acknowledged.

Bird Said Pascale Hutton Was Perfect for the Storyline They Chose

Hutton’s ability to play so many emotions so authentically, as her character struggled with being scared to hope that she was pregnant, really sold them on the pregnancy storyline.

“You know, one of the things about Pascale is that she’s such a great momma in real life, that boy did you see momma show up…” Bird said, recalling Hutton’s scenes near the end of the season. “And those eyes, and that consternation that she had as she’s going through the process of hoping, praying it [being pregnant] could be true, but having been disappointed so much in the past. You saw her cycle through all that as a human being… Rosemary had all the feels there, all the emotions that she went through. That to me was just, so, one of the great arcs of the season… She got to play a lot of flavors there with that.”

He said it all tied together to create a finale episode that had a victorious feeling.

“And then Lee runs out in his pajamas screaming to the world, ‘I’m gonna be a father,'” Bird recalled, thinking about the finale. “…That was the best thing ever. That was so awesome… Such a victorious way to finish season 9, with … their excitement over their news. Elizabeth and Lucas and Little Jack with their news, and even Henry with his news of feeling a new sense of self-worth and forgiveness of himself… For a final episode for a season that’s just gangbusters to me…”

In an interview with Behar of ET Online before the season began, Smith said fans would get an answer about the pregnancy storyline in season 9 because of Hutton’s tenacity.

“She was not going to let it go,” he said about Hutton wanting to make sure the storyline was resolved. “She was determined to get an answer, and it’s because of her tenacity that we got it. And the fans will get it too.”

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