Letterkenny’s Dylan Playfair enters bear country in I Kill the Bear

A new series from Letterkenny/Shoresy creator Jared Keeso boasts plenty of celebrity cameos and some musical choices that may surprise viewers. More importantly, there is a bear.

“There’s very much a bear,” says actor Dylan Playfair, who plays a rising Hollywood star in the series.

“They kept us at a very, very safe distance from the bear. They kept the bacon in another area code.”

Set in rural Ontario, I Kill the Bear follows the Thibaults, a French-Ontarian family who have wrangled bears for film sets for a hundred years. In the show’s lore, the family is legendary, having worked on virtually every major bear movie, from The Great Outdoors to Cocaine Bear.

“And consulted on Ted,” Playfair said.

“It’s an exaggerated world. It’s a very unique show tonally. There’s absolutely nothing like it that I’ve ever seen. I think people will recognize some of the Letterkenny tone and the Shoresy tone, but make no mistake about it, this show is definitely something that I don’t think any viewer will recognize as similar to any other project out there.”

Playfair’s character Timothy Hunt comes to Canada to film a movie about releasing a bear into the wild. While here, he’s caught up in fallout from something in his past.

“On the surface, it’s quite trivial,” Playfair said. “However, it’s taken very, very seriously by some people. He finds solace with the bear wranglers.”

Playfair is no stranger to the Keeso Universe, having played Reilly in Letterkenny. From the outset, he and Keeso agreed they wanted his character in I Kill the Bear, Timothy Hunt, to be very different from the lovably dim-witted hockey player.

“It was important to both of us that I took a bit of a departure from some of the characters I’ve played in the past who are a more jovial and goofy and silly and fun.”

Other cast members include Keeso, Kristin Kreuk and Kids in the Hall’s Scott Thompson. Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, former MMA fighter Georges St-Pierre and B.C. musical performer Art d’Ecco also make appearances, along with some surprise guest stars that Playfair isn’t about to spoil for viewers.

Music also plays a significant role in the series, with Keeso selecting the soundtrack before filming began.

“Jared is a really big fan of music, and it’s a huge part of what has made Letterkenny and Shoresy so successful,” Playfair said. “He had the soundtrack selected and referenced throughout the script, so I built a playlist and listened to it while reading. You get the feeling of the scene before you even get on set.”

As for which songs made the cut, Playfair was sworn to secrecy.

“I’d love to [tell you]. That was locked up pretty tight,” he said, although he confirmed that there’s “a good mix of Canadian songs.”

Although much of his acting work has taken him to Ontario, the B.C. native calls Vancouver home. He and his wife also run a production company with an office in Los Angeles. Their latest project is the horror film Breeder, which was shot in Vancouver and has just opened theatrically.