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Speaking exclusively to Sci-Fi Bulletin, Defiance writer/executive producer Rockne S. O’Bannon revealed that he is delighted with the casting of Buffy and Dexter star Julie Benz as the female lead for the show.

Benz will play Amanda Rosewater, the idealistic newly appointed mayor of the mining boomtown who is determined to maintain peace in the community. “Julie Benz was one of the very first names we all talked about for the role of Amanda,” O’Bannon explained. “Just as Grant Bowler was the very first name mentioned for the part of Jeb. It’s so rare that you get one of your first choices. But getting two of them – how fantastic is that?”

According to Deadline, Bowler plays Jeb Nolan, the law-keeper in the bustling frontier town. Stephanie Leonidas has been cast as Irisa, a beautiful warrior who is part of an alien race called the Irathients.  After Nolan killed her criminal father, he adopted the girl and raised her as his clever – and lethal – right-hand. Doctor Who‘s Vincent Van Gogh Tony Curran is Tarr, a member of another elite alien race known as the Castithans who schemed his way out of his home planet before it was destroyed, with Warehouse 13‘s Jaime Murray  as  his wife.

Legion‘s Scott Stewart is helming the project which will shoot in Toronto later this spring.