Benjamin Ayres sat down with the press on Wednesday, March 25, to talk about Hope Valley 1874, the new Hallmark+ prequel series that debuted March 22 and has already become a hit with Hearties (fans of When Calls the Heart). Fantasy Land News was part of that conversation, joining a junket where Ben opened by thanking fans for their support, calling the community “a blast” and promising more is on the way. What followed was a wide-ranging conversation about Hope Valley 1874, his career, the Hallmark family culture, and a community he has been quietly building outside of acting.
What Is Hope Valley 1874? Hope Valley 1874 is an eight-episode prequel series streaming exclusively on Hallmark+, set 36 years before the events of When Calls the Heart. The show follows Rebecca Clarke, a widow who leaves Chicago for the Western Canadian frontier with her young daughter, only to find that the boardinghouse she purchased is nothing like advertised. When her wagon breaks down, she has no choice but to accept help from Tom Moore, a rugged local rancher and confirmed bachelor played by Benjamin Ayres. Despite her plans to stay unattached, Rebecca finds herself drawn into the lives of the settlers building what will one day become Hope Valley.
Bethany Joy Lenz leads the series as Rebecca, with Ayres as Tom Moore and Jill Hennessy playing Hattie Quinn, a pioneer woman at the center of the growing community. Roan Curtis plays Hattie’s daughter Olivia, and Lachlan Quarmby rounds out the core cast as Constable Alexander Vaughn, one of the first members of the newly formed Royal Canadian Mounted Police. New episodes drop every Thursday on Hallmark+.
Our own Holly Gately caught the premiere and called it a delight for longtime fans. Read her full take in our Hope Valley 1874 premiere review, or check out our full preview of the series if you want everything you need to know before you start watching.
Ben describes his character, rancher Tom Moore, as an icy guy who doesn’t want the prospectors disrupting his land. He arrived and settled there three years prior, having picked up Peggy and Nash in Montana. He goes on to say that his character is intrigued by Rebecca’s grit, having the courage to travel from Chicago with her daughter. He also respects her wanting no help and to do it herself. Tom wants to help her, but Rebecca is strong enough to do it alone. Ben says that he wants Tom’s legacy to be that he built something that lasts with cooperation from those around him.
When asked about working with Jill Hennessy, he goes on to say that they got to know each other because they were staying at the same hotel. He marveled at her schedule. She was doing a residency in New York and would fly out of Vancouver every weekend and be back in Canada to film every Monday. This is the first foray into Hallmark for Jill Hennessy.
Of course, fans wondered about the connection to ‘When Calls The Heart.’ Ben says that this can be viewed as a stand-alone show with easter eggs to the original show. There are many little things that Hearties can pick out. For example, Tom’s house is actually the ‘When Calls The Heart’ church set with the steeple removed.
Finally, when asked about what this experience has meant to him. He says he’s grateful. Grateful for the story he gets to tell. As a Canadian, he is happy to tell a very Canadian story. Seeing what life was like back in the 1800’s makes him appreciate what he has now.
What the Hallmark World Actually Feels Like From the Inside. If you follow Hallmark closely, you know the Hallmark Channel has a reputation for feeling like a tight-knit community. Ben confirmed that it is real, not just marketing language. He told us the same producers and crew members cycle across many different films, which means by the time you show up on set, you are walking into a room full of people who already know each other. For the actors, that creates a creative safety net that is hard to find elsewhere.
He also talked about the connection that forms between costars, noting that even people who consider themselves introverts tend to bond quickly in that environment. The shared experience of wearing a heavy winter coat in the middle of a summer heat wave will do that to you. He described the challenge of filming Christmas movies out of season with a lot of humor, pointing out that maintaining the cozy holiday spirit while sweating through every take is its own kind of skill.
He Plays Leading Men and Best Friends and Treats Them the Same Way. Ben told us he has filled a range of roles in Hallmark projects, from the leading man to the best friend to the ex-boyfriend, and that he approaches each one by looking for the specific humanity underneath the character type. He is not interested in playing a trope. He wants to find the detail that makes the person feel real, even in a two-hour holiday movie where the audience already knows how it ends.
The Chancellor of Romance University. One of the more unexpected threads in the conversation was Ben’s work outside of acting. He is the founder of Romance University, a community he describes as a framework for belonging built around stories, rituals, and the culture of comfort that Hallmark fans already live in. He calls himself The Chancellor, which tells you everything you need to know about how seriously he takes the bit while also meaning every word of it.
What He Said About Saving Hope and the Fans Who Followed Him. The conversation touched on his work on Saving Hope and the fans who have followed him across projects ever since. Ben was genuinely moved talking about that audience. He told us that having people care about the work is not something he takes for granted, and that viewers who show up for specific actors and stick with them across different shows and movies are the reason the job feels meaningful. He connected that directly to Hallmark, saying the network gives him a platform to bring something positive into people’s homes, and that during difficult stretches in the world, that matters more than any industry metric.
Our Take. What stayed with us most is that Ben is not just an actor who shows up for Hallmark because it is steady work. He is someone who has genuinely built his life around the same values the genre runs on, and Romance University is the clearest proof of that. He is not waiting for someone to hand him a bigger platform. He is building one.
Being the only news outlet in a room full of Hallmark podcasters is an interesting position to be in, and it brought everything back to what Ben mentioned earlier: Hallmark Channel has a reputation for feeling like a tight-knit community. Joining Fantasy Land News were Everything About Hallmark, RomCom Love, Heart in Motion, Heart Podcast, Faith Love & Friendship, and Hallmarkies. The questions were good, and the conversation went places a standard press junket usually does not. Hope Valley 1874 is airing on Hallmark+
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