We’re just DAYS away from the newest season of Heartland, so I thought that it’s time for my annual article, where I list all the things we know about the upcoming season.
From premiere dates and first trailers to the cast for the upcoming season and more, get ready to learn everything there is to know at this point about Heartland season 17!
Heartland season 17 premiere date
We’ll start off with probably one of the most important tidbits – when will Heartland season 17 air?
And that’s an easy question to answer because CBC has announced that the Heartland season 17 premiere date is set for Sunday, October 1st.
As usual, Heartland will air on CBC on Sundays at 7 p.m./7:30 NT and will be available on CBC Gem as well.
And this year, the new season will start with a bang because Heartland season 17 episode 1 will also mark the show’s 250th episode. This means that we can expect an even bigger season premiere than usual because Heartland, like many shows, is known to go all-out for their milestone episodes.
How many episodes will Heartland season 17 have?
Next order of business – the episode count for Heartland season 17.
This is also no secret since the official episode count for the new season was revealed along with the season 17 renewal announcement.
So, season 17 will have 10 hour-long episodes:
- Heartland season 17 episode 1 (airing on October 1st) will be called “The Path Less Traveled” and will see a very pregnant Mallor turn up at the ranch with a wild horse. While Jack and Tim will face new competition, and Lou will have to deal with a familiar face becoming her opponent in her campaign to be reelected as Mayor.
- Heartland season 17 episode 2 (airing October 8th) will be called “Taking the Reins” and will see Amy and Jack retrain Edwin’s horse for carriage racing, which will end up bringing Amy and Edwin closer. At the same time, Logan will be taking on his first client horse. And election night will arrive just as the family is faced with a difficult loss.
- Heartland season 17 episode 3 (airing October 15th) will be called “The Heart Wants” and will see Amy helping Caleb with his son’s pony. Lou and Jessica will start a new venture. Katie will try out a risky new hobby. And Logan will take a big step in his relationship with Miley, only for a disaster to strike.
- Heartland season 17 episode 4 (airing on October 22nd) will be titled “A Piece Apart” and will see Amy dealing with Lyndy’s sudden fear of horses. On top of that, Logan will blame himself for Miley’s accident. Katie will struggle with a friendship. And Tim will enlist the whole family to help him make Shane’s return to the ranch perfect.
This means that although this season won’t be as long as season 16 was, there’s also less time for filler content and more time for meaningful stories and scenes that move the story along.
Heartland season 17 trailer
Ready to see a glimpse of what we can expect to see in season 17?
Well, you’re in luck because the official season 17 trailer was posted on the show’s YouTube channel on September 13th.
Here it is:
The trailer opens with Jack saying: “Families, they come in all shapes and sizes. And it doesn’t matter how full of people your house is as long as it’s full of love.” While beautiful shots of horses grazing a field are shown on screen.
Then we see a title card saying: “It takes just as much strength to face the past as it does the future.” Which jumps to Amy riding near the ranch and then looking over it.
Next, there are shots of Amy, Lou, Jack and Lisa, Mallory and Jake, Caleb, and finally Tim and Shane in early seasons juxtaposed to them now, in season 17.
And the trailer ends with some rapid-fire shots of everything from Katie dancing and somebody (my guess is Caleb) kissing Amy to Lou sitting beside what appears to be a renovation project of some sort, followed by Amy on a swing contemplating life.
Who is returning for Heartland season 17?
When it comes to season 17, we can expect to see many of our favorite characters.
Our main cast for the season, as reflected in the season 17 poster, will be Amber Marshall, Chris Potter, Michelle Morgan, and Shaun Johnston reprising their roles as Amy, Tim, Lou, and Jack.
But these aren’t the only characters that will appear during the season.
As the trailer revealed, Jessica Steen will be back as Jack’s wife, Lisa, and twins Ruby and Emmanuella Spencer will reprise their roles as Amy’s daughter Lyndy. We’ll also see Kerry James as Caleb, Baye McPherson as Katie, Drew Davis as Logan, and Aidan Moreno as Rick.
But that’s not all.
Jessica Amlee and Jake Church will also be back for at least one episode as Mallory and Jake.
And it looks like the two will be welcoming the newest member of their family during their visit to the ranch since the trailer shows what looks like Mallory giving birth, and we did see Mallory tell Jake that she’s pregnant in Heartland season 16 episode 7.
Also, Sam Duke will return as Tim’s son Shane, who we last saw in Heartland season 16 episode 13 when Tim met up with Shane in Kananaskis after they reconnected earlier in the season.
And by the looks of social media, Maxim Roy will also be returning as Tim’s ex-girlfriend and Shane’s mother Miranda.
Additionally, Jaelynn Thora Brooks will be back as barrel racer Miley from season 16 episode 11. And René Escobar Jr. will be back as Edwin, Lyndy’s friend’s dad, who also works at Fairfield Stables for Lisa and whom we met on episode 1613.
And while the trailer didn’t feature Ava Tran as Parker, Gabriel Hogan as Peter, or Michelle Nolden as Jessica, a quick social media dive told me that all these characters will appear in season 17 since the actors have shared social media content from the set of season 17.
Who is joining the cast for Heartland season 17?
There is not much information as to the new characters that will appear during the upcoming season. But I’ve seen photos of two men that are not familiar to us who will somehow feature into this new season.
First of all, we saw this guy in the Heartland season 17 official trailer at the 1:47 mark.
The actor’s name is Spencer Lord, but who will Spencer be playing on Heartland, that’s still a bit of a mystery. As I figure, if he was shown in the trailer, he must be a pretty decent part of the new season.
I guess we will see in episode 1703 since he appeared in the promo and promotional images for the episode!
And then, thanks to an article from Popternative, we also know that this man will be featured in an episode.
Since the synopsis for episode 1701 said that Jack and Tim will be faced with new competition for their cattle business, I wonder if this man might have to do something with that.
Or maybe he’s a new client for Amy and Logan? Who knows? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!
If you know anything about who these new characters are or just want to speculate, feel free to sound off in the comment section under the article!
What do we know about the stories being told during season 17?
Although there isn’t a whole lot that has been revealed about Heartland season 17, there are a few tidbits I have gathered that tell us of some of the things we will see during season 17.
First of all, there is the official synopsis for season 17 that was posted to Heartland’s entry on the CBC Media Center website.
It tells us that the theme for the upcoming season will be embracing the unexpected, which will include embracing new adventures, challenges, and, yes, new relationships.
On top of that, the official trailer for season 17 and the episode loglines also revealed several things about the upcoming season.
For example, we know that Amy and Jack will be retraining Edwin’s horse for carriage racing in episode 1702 and, therefore, having fun riding the carriage through some water.
Rick will be running for Mayor against Lou, which will definitely be interesting to see given how close of friends the two have become over the last few seasons. And we will see the outcome of the Mayoral race bright and early in the season – on episode 1702.
We also know that Shane will be visiting Tim at some point. And that Mallory and Jake will also be down for a visit in episode 1701.
Katie will start exploring a new hobby in episode 1703. And thanks to a video the show’s executive producer, Michael Weinberg, shared on his Instagram account, we know that that’s going to be riding a motorcycle.
To quote the post’s comments, Uncle Ty would be proud!
Finally, thanks to a video from The Gate and the show’s official blog, we know that a Working Cow Horse competition (a new horse discipline that hasn’t really been featured on the show yet) will also take place in episode 1706, which will see Amy stepping out of her element and showing Jack’s horse Blue at the competition.
The show even hosted a Fan Day on July 17 at a private ranch outside Calgary (which will translate into a new location for the show) just to film this competition, and the fans got to be part of scenes that were filmed during the day.
So, what do you think?
Are you as excited for Heartland season 17 as I am? And what are you looking forward to seeing during the new season the most?
Let me know in the comments below!
And as per usual, I’ll be doing recaps on the new episodes on the Monday after each new episode airs. So stay tuned for those by checking back to this blog or following tvshowpilot on social media!
