The prominent Swedish writer of The Bridge and UK crime Marcella spoke to us.

Is this series like coming back to your roots for you, as you have done kids programme before turning to crime, and you are working on a quintessentially Swedish IP, after several UK-based productions?
HR: Yes after The Bridge, it’s been predominantly crime in books and on screen, although I did quite a lot of kids and family programmes, mixed with crime earlier in my career. It’s nice to go back to family content and this project has come at a very convenient time for me.

Looking at the core of the story, would you say that there are two main themes-Ronja’s coming of age as a young girl breaking away from her parents, then a Romeo and Juliet story, between Ronja and the young boy Birk?
HR: Yes this is exactly what it is. A coming of age story but perhaps even more, breaking free from your parents, and discovering that perhaps they are not the people you thought they were. They aren’t flawless, and even do things you can’t agree with, but they are still your parents. It’s about what it means for Ronja to be a robber’s daughter. We’re exploring that. Then yes, it’s very much a Romeo & Juliet story of forbidden love, although here it’s more a sibling’s love, friendship love. This will play a bigger part later in the story.

How will the episodic series be structured?
HR: Basically, we follow the book and just expand certain things, such as the emotional arc. In the book for instance, Ronja is told that her father Matt is the robber when she’s 11. She had no idea what he was doing before. She’s very upset, but she says…oh well, I still love him. That’s kind of the end of the conflict for her. He is actually proud to be a robber, brings her to a robbery and she is shocked to what he does. She simply can’t accept it. That conflict is fleshed out in the series. We see an 11 year-old girl breaking away from her family, tying to find herself in a world that she doesn’t understand. And the world she does understand is the forest where she is completely at home, where no one betrays her.

We definitely spice up the drama part in the adventures. But the series is filled with fantasy elements, mythical creatures. It feels very much like an adventure.

What is the core age group?
HR: We think that if it was to be shown in cinemas, you would have to be 11, but you can see it from 6-7 with an adult. It’s not violent but the threats, the creatures are scary.

Harry Potter was pretty scary for younger kids…
HR: Yes, it’s quite a good role model for that. It even goes darker than we do.

The series sounds like the perfect mix for today’s younger generation, with a strong environmental theme, the coming of age, love story and fantasy on top…
HR: Yes the mix is unique. The time is right to show that we need to take care of nature and what nature can do for us. It is a place for healing and we should take care of it. Ronja is more at home in the forest than in her castle. That’s not a bad thing.

With the pandemic a lot of people are longing for nature. This is also for adults to reflect on…
HR: I see it as a true family series. Some shows try too hard to target the 10-year olds, so you get bored, or reversely, in other kids shows, there are jokes with adult reference that kids don’t get. But we’re staying away from this.

Will you be splitting the writing with episodic writers?
HR: No. I will write the full 12 episodes.

You’ve witnessed the early days of the Nordic noir wave -with your own landmark show The Bridge created exactly a decade ago. How do you feel about today’s streaming era where talents are even more in demand. How do you prioritise the projects you want to be involved in?
HR: I always do what I’d like to watch. I structure series to keep me interested and if I can be interested over 6-12 episodes, then hopefully enough people out there will have the same taste in drama-and not only Swedes. It’s about storytelling. There are sometimes cultural differences, but in this case, it will be a global show.

For more information on Ronja the Robber’s Daughter production: CLICK HERE.