After a rocky turn in the Sundance drama Red Road , Jason Momoa will once again light up the small screen when Border premieres on Netflix on January 20. "Game of Thrones" stars veterinarian Declan Harp, an 18th-century outlaw who navigates Canada's brutal power struggle. Promote fur trade. He worked to overthrow the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly, forcing the industry to turn to chaotic, bloody fighting. Given that the show is an action-packed period drama, viewers may be wondering if "Border" is based on a true story, and while it doesn't have any direct ties to reality, it's certainly rooted in history.
According to Huffington Post Canada, executive producer and star Alan Hawco said the show is a historical fiction drama, but it does explore aspects of very real history. The North American fur trade was a very real business, dating back to the 1600s. When beaver populations began to decline abroad, France and the United Kingdom established protected areas around Canada's Hudson Bay, according to the University of California, Santa Cruz. Beavers in the northern part of the continent have thicker fur and are more popular with customers, making the region a market hotspot. As the industry grew, it helped build cultural bridges between European settlers and local Native Americans, linking them economically, politically, and symbolically. However, this also brought them into international conflicts such as the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution.
The Hudson's Bay Company was also a legal charter company. The company was founded in 1670 and operated many trading posts across Canada, according to its website. As London's Natural History Museum points out, it was at one time the world's largest landowner, owning 15% of North America. In the decades since, it has grown into a thriving department store, now with 90 full-line stores. (Bustle reached out to representatives of the Hudson's Bay Company for comment on the portrayal in "Frontier," but has yet to hear back.)
But while Frontier does have many historical touchstones, its narrative is entirely fictional. Momoa told USA Today that while he was attracted to the show's real-life storyline, what impressed him most was the character himself: a rogue, ferocious former Hudson's Bay employee. "I did a lot of research, but the most useful thing for me was to relate it to my life. As a father, if someone did the same thing to my family, what would I do?" he told the outlet. . "I could read and look up a lot of stuff, but there wasn't a single fact that excited me. It was actually that I wanted to play during that time."
For Netflix, it's a formula that works. Last year, the streaming hub's The Crown gained instant critical acclaim, similarly weaving an imaginative story rooted in history. In this case, the story revolves around the early years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, but we're hoping Borderland's scarier, more thrilling approach will follow a similar successful path. Find out the show will be available on Netflix on Friday, January 20th.
